Nursing is a profession that requires endless hours, unlimited patience, and unconditional passion for strangers. There are over three million nurses in the United States alone and in an industry where everyone is regarded as a hero, there are still a few who stood out because of their undying dedication, contribution, and devotion to their chosen profession.

These are the “nurse sharks” or women nurses who have gone an extra mile to share their passion for nursing, became role models, or simply made their presence known in terms of research and studies.

1. Florence Nightingale (1820 – 1910)

Known as the brainchild of modern nursing, Nightingale became a beacon of hope among wounded soldiers and war victims during the Crimean War. She visited anyone who needed her help at night, holding her iconic lamp which gave her the title “The Lady with the Lamp”.

Nightingale also founded the first secular school for nurses at the St. Thomas’s Hospital in the United Kingdom, which later became part of the King’s College London. Her contribution to the nursing profession varied from improving the healthcare, advocating hunger relief, and expanding women’s participation in getting employed.

2. Dorothea Dix (1802 – 1887)

Besides heading the Army nurses as their Superintendent throughout the Civil War, Dix was an activist on behalf of the poor who are mentally ill and insane. Due to her persistent advocacy, the first public mental institute was established in Pennsylvania and the “Benefit of the Indigent Insane” bill was passed.

3. Mary Eliza Mahoney (1845 – 1926)

Mahoney was the first nurse with African American lineage to have studied, work, and prospered in a field dominated by the white society. She gracefully fought against race discrimination in nursing, co-founding the NACGN or National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses to help boost the lives and standard of African-American nurses.

4. Margaret Sanger (1879 – 1966)

Sanger made the term “birth control” and “sex education” popular during a period where everyone felt it was taboo topic to discuss. Her passion and advocacy helped opened the first American birth control clinic, which later paved the path to establish organizations such as the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

5. Clara Barton (1821 – 1912)

Barton founded the American Red Cross while serving as a hospital nursing during the Civil War. Her humanitarian work served as a pioneering profession for women who rarely do work outside their homes.

6. Virginia Lynch

Lynch’s fascination with forensics and crime laboratory helped open a new nursing specialty in the industry called “Forensic Nursing” in 1982. It helped preserved evidences which were often destroyed during autopsy or medical intervention, saving many crimes from being tagged as a cold case.

7. Dame Claire Bertschinger

A nurse and an activist for the developing world’s suffering and needy people, Bertschinger’s unselfish hard work in Ethiopia in 1984 helped mounted Band Aid and Live Aid relief programs.

8. Jacqueline Fawcett

Fawcett is internationally known for creating conceptual models for nursing theory development. Her “Roy Adaptation Model” programs helped the industry focus on encouraging patients to transition from serious illnesses to normal life, how women react to cesarean birth, and how women adapt to motherhood.