This is a list of famous nurses in history. To be listed here, the nurse must already have a Wiki biography article. For background information see History of nursing and Timeline of nursing history. For nurses in art, film and literature see list of fictional nurses.
A-D
- Lady Harriet Acland (1750-1815), British noblewoman
- Saint Alda (died c. 1309), Italian Catholic saint
- Moyra Allen (1921-1996), helped develop the McGill Model of Nursing
- Allen Allensworth (1842-1914) famous African-American American Civil War soldier who started as a nurse
- Sir Jonathan Asbridge was the first president of the UK's Nursing and Midwifery Council
- Charles Atangana (1880-1943), paramount chief of the Ewondo and Bane in Cameroon
- Martha Ballard (1735-1812), American frontier midwife, great-aunt of Clara Barton
- Nita Barrow (1916 - 1995), 5th Governor-General of Barbados who started as a nurse midwife and public health educator
- Ann A. Bernatitus (1912-2003), one of the Angels of Bataan — USN nurses in the Philippines in WW2
- Clara Barton (1821-1912), organized the American Red Cross
- Christine Beasley CBE (born 1944), Chiefing Nursing Officer for England
- Irene L. Beland (1906-2000), American nursing educator, author of Clinical Nursing: Pathophysiological and Psychosocial Approaches
- Claire Bertschinger Swiss-British nurse who inspired the Band Aid charity movement
- Mary Ann Bickerdyke (1817-1901), nurse during the American Civil War known as "Mother Bickerdyke"
- Florence Blake (1907-1983), American pediatric nursing professor and author
- Florence A. Blanchfield (1884-1971), superintendent of the United States Army Nurse Corps
- Cecilia Blomqvist (1845-1890), Finnish deaconess
- Angela Boškin (1885-1977), first professionally trained Slovenian nurse and social worker in Yugoslavia
- Hilda Bowen (1923-2002), credited with establishing the modern nursing profession in The Bahamas
- Jo Brand (born 1957), British nurse-turned-comedian
- Elsa Brändström (1888-1948), Swedish World War I Red Cross nurse in Siberia
- Mary Carson Breckinridge (1881-1965), founder of the Frontier Nursing Service
- Vera Brittain (1893-1970), WWI nurse
- Mary Francis Bridgeman (1813-1888), nun and Crimean War nurse
- Ellen Johanne Broe (1900-1994) Danish nurse and nursing educator
- Anna Broms (1862-1890), first trained nurse in Finland
- Viola Davis Brown (1936–2017), first African-American to lead a state office of public health nursing in the United States
- Abraão José Bueno (born 1977), Brazilian nurse and serial killer.
- Carrie E. Bullock (1887-1962), African American nurse
- Vivian Bullwinkel (1915-2000), lone survivor of the Banka Island Massacre, celebrated by the Australian Service Nurses Memorial
- Elizabeth Burchill (1904-2003) was an Australian nurse, philanthropist and author
- Betsi Cadwaladr (1789-1860), Welsh nurse who worked alongside Florence Nightingale in the Crimea
- Amanda Cajander, (1827-1871), pioneer in the education of deaconesses and nursing in Finland
- Maude E. Callen (1898-1990), American 20th century nurse-midwife
- Vice Admiral Richard Carmona (born 1949), Surgeon General of the United States
- Dr Peter Carter OBE, British nurse and general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing
- Anne Casey, New Zealand-born pediatric British nurse who developed Casey's model of nursing
- Edith Cavell (1865-1915), heroine of World War I
- Maria Cederschiöld (deaconess) (1815-1892), pioneer in the education of deaconesses and nursing in Sweden
- Ellen Christensen (1913–1998), Danish nurse and resistance fighter
- Luther Christman (1915-2011), first male dean of a U.S. nursing program; established the Rush model of nursing
- Dame June Clark (born 1941), Professor at University of Swansea
- Louise Conring (1824–1891), first trained nurse in Denmark, head of Copenhagen's Deaconess Institute
- Lady Diana Cooper, prominent social figure in London and Paris, widely acknowledged as the beauty of the century
- Cubah Cornwallis (died 1848), Jamaican nurse and "doctoress" who treated Nelson and William IV when they were stationed in the West Indies.
- Paul Crawford (born 1963), pioneer of the field of health humanities
- Evelyn May Cridlan (1889–1961), British nurse and ambulance driver in the First World War
- Harriet Patience Dame (1815-1900), nurse during the American Civil War, served with the 2nd New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry.
- Grace Ebun Delano (born 1935), pioneer of reproductive health services in Nigeria
- Jane Delano (1862-1919), founder of the American Red Cross Nursing Service
- Maria de Villegas de Saint-Pierre (1870-1941) founded the Saint-Camille Nursing School and directed the Élisabeth Hospital in Poperinge during World War I
- Edith DeVoe (1921-2000) 1st African-American nurse to serve in the regular Navy, World War II and Korean War nurse
- Marion Dewar (1928–2008), mayor of Ottawa and a member of the Parliament
- Louise Dietrich (1878-1962), suffragist and nurse in Texas
- Dorothea Dix (1802-1887), superintendent of Army Nurses during the American Civil War
- Josephine Dolan (1913-2004), nursing historian and educator at the University of Connecticut
- Mary Donaldson, Baroness Donaldson of Lymington (1921-2003), Lord Mayor of London
- Sister Dora (1832-1878), British 19th century nurse
- Ellen Dougherty (1844-1919), first Registered Nurse
- Rosalie Dreyer (1895-1987) Swiss-born, naturalized British nurse and administrator who led the conversion from a volunteer service to the profession of nursing in Britain
- Diane Duane (born 1952) American science fiction and fantasy author
- Lucy Lincoln Drown (1848 –1934), American nursing educator
E-L
- Sarah Emma Edmundson (1841-1898), Canadian-American author who served with the Union Army in the American Civil War
- Victoria Joyce Ely (1889-1979), Florida's first licensed midwife. Conducted training programs for midwives in the state
- Queen Fabiola of Belgium (1928–2014)
- Saint Fabiola (died 399)
- Helen Fairchild (1885-1918), World War I nurse
- Florence Farmborough (1887-1978), British nurse who kept diaries of her service during World War I as a Red Cross nurse with the Imperial Russian army
- Ainna Fawcett-Henesy, former Regional Adviser on Nursing and Midwifery for Europe for WHO
- Ethel Gordon Fenwick (1856-1947), British nurse who campaigned for a law limiting nursing to "registered" nurses only
- Erna Flegel (1911-2006), Adolf Hitler's nurse
- Alma E. Foerster (1885-1967), American nurse who served in World War I, received the Florence Nightingale Medal (1920) and then worked in the United States Public Health Service
- Elizabeth Warham Forster (1886-1972), American nurse who served the Navajo Nation and advocated for their retention of traditional medicine practices
- Michiko Fujiwara (1900-1983), Japanese nurse who later became a politician
- Genevieve de Galard, French nurse during the French war in Indochina
- Nelly Garzón Alarcón (1932-2019), Colombian nurse, teacher; first Latin American nurse to be president of the International Council of Nurses
- Eliza George (1808–1865), American Civil War nurse
- Abigail Hopper Gibbons (1801-1893), abolitionist activist during the American Civil War
- Helen L. Gilson (1836-1868), American Civil War nurse
- Marjory Gordon, nursing theorist and professor who created a nursing assessment theory known as Gordon's functional health patterns
- Kate Gosselin, American television personality
- Cornelia Hancock (1839-1926), American Civil War nurse
- Jean Evelyn Headberry (1911–1993), Australian registered nurse and midwife and recipient of the Florence Nightingale Medal
- Lucille Hegamin (1894-1970), blues recording artist
- Eliza Parks Hegan (1861–1917), Canadian nurse
- Virginia Henderson (1897-1996), 'First Lady of Nursing", American nurse theorist
- Bodil Hellfach (1856–1941), Danish nurse, deputy head of the Danish Nurses' Organization
- Lenah Higbee (1874-1941), pioneering U.S. Navy nurse during World War I
- Gerda Höjer (1893-1974), recipient of the Florence Nightingale Medal and President of the International Council of Nurses
- Anna Morris Holstein (1825-1900), Civil War Nurse, Matron-in-Chief, from Gettysburg to Virginia, Author of Three Years in Field Hospitals Of The Army Of The Potomac
- Dame Agnes Hunt (1867-1948), British Orthopaedic Nursing pioneer
- Alberta Hunter (1895-1984), jazz singer
- Rachela Hutner (1909-2008) Polish pioneer nurse, credited with establishing the modern Polish nursing profession
- Euphemia Steele Innes RRC DN (1874–1955), Scottish nurse, matron of Leeds General Infirmary and of 2nd Northern General Hospital, founded Leeds Nurses' League
- Calamity Jane (1852-1903), American frontierswoman and nurse
- Sally Lucas Jean (1878–1971), American health educator and nurse
- Victoria Jensen (1847–1930), deaconess, nursing supervisor, from 1914 head of Copenhagen's Deaconess Institute
- Hazel Johnson-Brown (1927-2011), first African-American head of the United States Army Nurse Corps
- June Jolly (1928–2016), British pioneer of children's nursing
- Liliane Juchli (1933-2020), Swiss nurse and author/editor of a highly influential nursing textbook
- Ani Kalayjian Syrian born Armenian Ameriacan academic, nurse, and founder of Meaningful World
- Carol Kefford (born 1958), British nurse and administrator
- Virginia Clinton Kelley (1923-1994), mother of United States President Bill Clinton
- Dame Betty Kershaw, Professor at Sheffield
- Eunice Muringo Kiereini, (born 1939), Chief Nursing Officer of Kenya and first African president of the International Council of Nurses
- Docia Kisseih, (1919-2008), initiated advances in nursing and nurse training in post-independence Ghana
- Thora Knudsen (1861–1950), Danish nurse, trades unionist and women's rights activist
- Ashley Leechin, American social media personality and nurse
- Nancy J. Lescavage, Director of the Navy Nurse Corps
- Daurene Lewis, first black woman mayor in North America.
- Janet Lim (1923-2014), nurse at St. Andrew's Community Hospital. She was the first nurse from Singapore to study in Britain. She was inducted as 2014 Singapore Women's Hall of Fame.
- Mary Todd Lincoln (1818-1882), volunteer nurse during the American Civil War
- Kate Lorig, professor at Stanford University School of Medicine
- Ljubica Luković, (1858-1915) established the first nurses' training course in Serbia and in 1925 was posthumously awarded the Florence Nightingale Medal
- Courtney Lyder (born 1966), first black dean of the UCLA School of Nursing
- Edna Lois Foley (1878 –1943), American nurse
- Elinor D. Gregg (1889 – 1970), American public nurse
M-R
- Mary, Princess Royal and Countess of Harewood (1897-1965)
- Mary Eliza Mahoney (1845-1946), first professionally trained African-American nurse
- Jeanne Mance (1606-1673), French nurse, founder of Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal (1645).
- Sophie Mannerheim (1863-1928), pioneer of modern nursing in Finland
- Marie Manthey (born 1935), one of the originators of Primary Nursing
- Louise de Marillac (1591-1660), founder of the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul
- Kate Marsden (1859-1931), British missionary nurse
- Anna Maxwell (1851–1929), U.S. Army nurse whose activities were crucial to the growth of professional nursing in America
- Carolyn McCarthy, American politician
- Jean McFarlane, Baroness McFarlane of Llandaff
- Louisa McLaughlin (1836-1921), one of the first British Red Cross nurses, served in two wars
- Louise McManus, first nurse to earn a PhD Referred to as Louise McManus
- Agda Meyerson, (1866-1924) pioneering Swedish nurse
- Anne Milton (born 1955), British Member of Parliament
- Jane Minor, aka Gensey Snow, 1792–1858, African-American healer, midwife, and slave emancipator
- Naomi Mitchison (1897-1999), British novelist and poet
- Jeannine Moquin-Perry, Canadian religious and political activist
- Sarah Mullally (born 1962) British Chief Nursing Officer and Bishop of London
- Charlotte Munck (1876–1932), Danish nurse, important figure in the training of nurses
- Annie Murray (1906-1996) Scottish nurse who went to the Spanish Civil War
- Razan al-Najar (1996/1997-2018), Palestinian nurse shot during a rescue in 2018 Gaza border protests.
- Elizabeth Grace Neill (1846-1926), Kiwi nurse
- Bonnie Nettles (1927-1985), co-leader of the Heaven's Gate religious cult
- Nora Neve (1873-1952), pioneer of missionary nursing in Kashmir
- Mary Ann Brown Newcomb (1817–1892, American Civil War nurse following the Battle of Fort Donelson
- Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), pioneer of modern nursing
- Clara Noyes (1869-1946), enrolled 20,000 Red Cross nurses for World War I service, founded the first school for midwives in the U.S.
- Mary Adelaide Nutting (November 1, 1858 – October 3, 1948) was a Canadian nurse, educator, and pioneer in the field of hospital care.
- Emily Elizabeth Parsons (1824-1880) American Civil War nurse, hospital administrator, and founder of Mt. Auburn Hospital
- Emma Maria Pearson (1828–93), writer and one of the first British Red Cross nurses, served in two wars
- Hildegard Peplau, first published nursing theorist since Florence Nightingale. She created the middle-range nursing theory of interpersonal relations
- Anita Thigpen Perry, First Lady of Texas
- Jill Pettis, New Zealand Member of Parliament
- Lynne Pillay, New Zealand Member of Parliament
- Kerry Prendergast, Mayor of Wellington, New Zealand
- Tom Quinn, influential UK Professor of Cardiac nursing
- Halima Rafat, pioneer Afghan nurse and women's rights activist, one of the first to nurses of her country
- Emmy Rappe (1835-1896), Swedish pioneer in the education of nurses
- Kaye Lani Rae Rafko, Miss America 1988
- Claire Rayner (1931–2010), British journalist, agony aunt and activist
- Linda Richards (1841-1930), America's first professionally trained nurse
- Isabel Hampton Robb, helped develop early programs of nursing education
- Rachel Robinson (born 1922), wife of baseball star Jackie Robinson
- Debbie Rowe (born 1958), wife of singer Michael Jackson
- Elaine Roe, U.S. Army nurse, one of the first four women to be awarded the Silver Star
- M. Helena McMillan (1869 – 1970), Canadian-American nursing educator
S-Z
- Margaret Sanger (1879-1966), founder of the U.S. birth control movement.
- Betty Schmoll (1936-2015), founder of Hospice of Dayton, one of the first hospice programs in the United States.
- Lynda Scott, New Zealand MP.
- Mary Seacole (1805-1881), Jamaican British nurse in the Crimean War known as "the Black Florence Nightingale".
- Schwester Selma (1884-1984), German-Jewish head nurse in Jerusalem, known as "the Jewish Florence Nightingale".
- Flora Madeline Shaw (1864–1927), Canadian nurse and nursing teacher
- Nigar Shikhlinskaya (1871-1931), first Azerbaijani nurse.
- Kapelwa Sikota (1928 – 2006), first Zambian registered nurse.
- Kathleen Simon, Viscountess Simon (1864-1955), British abolitionist.
- Jessie Sleet Scales (1865-1956), first black public health nurse in the United States.
- Myrah Keating Smith (1908-1994) nurse, midwife, only medical provider on Saint John, U.S. Virgin Islands for two decades
- Mabel Keaton Staupers (1890-1989), advocate for racial equality in the nursing profession during era of American segregation.
- Daphne Steele (1929-2004), Guyanese Matron, was the first Black Matron in the British NHS.
- Margaretta Styles (1930-2005), American advocate for standardization of nursing credentials, University of California, San Francisco Nursing School dean, past president of the American Nurses Association and International Council of Nurses.
- Adah Belle Samuels Thoms (1870-1943), pioneering African-American rights activist, who fought for African-American nurses to be permitted to serve in the U.S. armed forces.
- Violetta Thurstan (1879-1978), nurse in WWI, decorated for bravery.
- Annie Rensselaer Tinker (1884-1924), volunteer nurse in WWI, suffragist, and philanthropist
- Sally Louisa Tompkins (1833-1916), humanitarian and philanthropist during the American Civil War.
- Harriet Tubman (c. 1822-1913), African-American abolitionist.
- Florence Wald (1917-2008), founder of the hospice movement in the U.S.
- Lillian Wald (1867-1940), founder of visiting nursing in the U.S.
- Jean Watson, an American nurse theorist and nursing professor, best known for her Theory of Human Caring.
- Faye Wattleton (born 1943), president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
- Elizabeth Wettlaufer (born 1967), Canadian serial killer who murdered eight of her patients with insulin injections.
- Walt Whitman (1819-1892), American poet, American Civil War nurse.
- Sarah Palmer Young (1830-1908), American Civil War nurse, author of a memoir.
- Tome Yoshida (1876-1963), Japanese nurse.
- Sophie Zahrtmann (1841–1925), deaconess, nurse, head of Copenhagen's Deaconess Institute
