Nursing
If you are interested in pursuing a degree or finding a job in nursing, everything you need is here. Find the best schools, career information, history of the discipline, influential people in the field, great books, and more.
Featured Programs
What Is nursing?
Nursing is an integral part of the healthcare system overall. A career in nursing could lead to a specialty in pediatrics, gerontology, oncology, or surgery, among others. As a nursing student, you may study subjects such as physiology, pharmacology, microbiology, leadership managment, and more.
The Best Colleges and Universities for Nursing Degrees
Best Nursing Major Research Universities
- University of Pennsylvania
- Columbia University
- Johns Hopkins University
- Duke University
- University of Michigan
Best Nursing Major Liberal Arts Colleges
- College of the Ozarks
- Monroe College
- University of Portland
- Berea College
- Minot State University
Best RN-to-BSN Online Colleges
- Virginia Commonwealth University
- University of Rochester
- University of Cincinnati
- Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center
- University of South Carolina
To view the entire list of top nursing schools, including schools offering online degrees and a breakdown of the best nursing colleges and universities in your state, visit our look at the Best Colleges and Universities for Nursing Degrees.
For a dynamic, real-time listing of the most influential nursing schools in the world, use our Custom College Ranking.
The Best Online Nursing Degrees
Nursing is among the most popular disciplines at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. A growing number of reputable colleges and universities are satisfying demand for this degree by providing an array of high-quality online nursing degree options. Using our InfluenceRanking engine, we’ve identified the best among them. Check out our growing set of rankings for online nursing degree programs at every level of education.
Nursing Degrees
What Will I Study as a Nursing Major?
As a nursing major, you’ll study physiology, health assessment, pharmacology, health policy, and more.
What Can I Do With a Degree in Nursing
Graduates with a master’s in nursing MSN degree can specialize in areas such as gerontology, pediatrics, oncology, or administration, among others.
If you’re ready to earn your degree at one of the most prestigious schools in the world, get started with a look at the Most Influential Schools in Nursing
If you’d like to learn more, check out our extensive list of resources for Nursing students, graduates, and professionals...
If you’re still deciding on a college major, our comprehensive guide to college majors and programs can help steer you in the right direction.
How To Get a Degree in Nursing
- Find out what you can do with a Master’s Degree in Nursing
Who are the Most Influential Nurses of All Time?
Nursing is recognized as an expansive educational discipline, one touching on countless areas of life. This extremely nuanced and complex area of study has been shaped by the influence of pioneers in the field of psychology. Below, you will find some of the most influential psychologists of all time.
- Florence Nightingale was an English social reformer, statistician and the founder of modern nursing.
- Cicely Saunders was an English nurse, social worker, physician and writer. She is noted for her work in terminal care research and her role in the birth of the hospice movement.
- Hildegard Peplau was an American nurse and the first published nursing theorist since Florence Nightingale. She created the middle-range nursing theory of interpersonal relations, which helped to revolutionize the scholarly work of nurses.
- Callista Roy is an American nun, nursing theorist, professor and author. She is known for creating the adaptation model of nursing.
- Virginia Henderson was an influential nurse, researcher, theorist, and author.Henderson is famous for a definition of nursing: “The unique function of the nurse is to assist the individual, sick or well, in the performance of those activities contributing to health or its recovery that he would perform unaided if he had the necessary strength, will or knowledge” .
- Madeleine Leininger was a nursing theorist, nursing professor and developer of the concept of transcultural nursing.
- Lillian Wald was an American nurse, humanitarian and author. She was known for contributions to human rights and was the founder of American community nursing..
- Carl O. Helvie was an American registered nurse and Professor Emeritus of Nursing at Old Dominion University. Helvie is known for his development and implementation of the Helvie Energy Theory of Nursing and Health.
- Linda Richards was the first professionally trained American nurse. She established nursing training programs in the United States and Japan, and created the first system for keeping individual medical records for hospitalized patients.
- Florence Wald was an American nurse, largely credited as “the mother of the American hospice movement”. She led the founding of Connecticut Hospice, the first hospice program in the United States.
Now that you have a bird’s eye view of some of the most influential nurses of all time, find other nursing pioneers to explore in more depth
Who Are the Current Top Influential Nurses
The following are the top nurses in the field today according to our machine-powered Influence Rankings, which are drawn from a numerical score of academic achievements, merits, and citations across Wikipedia/data, Crossref, and an ever-growing body of data.
- Carl O. Helvie was an American registered nurse and Professor Emeritus of Nursing at Old Dominion University. Helvie is known for his development and implementation of the Helvie Energy Theory of Nursing and Health.
- Patricia Flatley Brennan is the director of the National Library of Medicine.
- Callista Roy is an American nun, nursing theorist, professor and author. She is known for creating the adaptation model of nursing.
- Cicely Saunders was an English nurse, social worker, physician and writer. She is noted for her work in terminal care research and her role in the birth of the hospice movement.
- Jean Watson is an American nurse theorist and nursing professor who is best known for her theory of human caring. She is the author of numerous texts, including Nursing: The Philosophy and Science of Caring. Watson’s research on caring has been incorporated into education and patient care at hundreds of nursing schools and healthcare facilities across the world.
- Lauren Underwood is an American politician and registered nurse who serves as the U.S. Representative for Illinois’s 14th congressional district as a member of the Democratic Party.
- Madeleine Leininger was a nursing theorist, nursing professor and developer of the concept of transcultural nursing. First published in 1961, her contributions to nursing theory involve the discussion of what it is to care.
- Afaf Meleis is a Professor of Nursing and Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, where she was the Margaret Bond Simon Dean of Nursing and Director of the School’s WHO Collaborating Center for Nursing and Midwifery Leadership from 2002 through 2014. This followed her 34-year tenure as a professor at the University of California, San Francisco.
- Ann Burgess is a researcher whose work has focused on developing ways to assess and treat trauma in rape victims.
- Dorothea Orem was a nursing theorist and creator of the self-care deficit nursing theory, also known as the Orem model of nursing.
Nursing Controversial Topics
Nurses are key members of the healthcare community. Their roles are vital in caring for and supporting their patients. Because of the personal nature of healthcare, unpredictable behavior and disagreements are possible. As such, we’ll do our best to provide objective and fact-based information on the controversies pertinent to the nursing discipline.
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