Introducing the Theorists
Ernestine Wiedenbach, Virginia Henderson, and
Ida Jean Orlando are three of the most important
influences on nursing theory development of the
twentieth century. Indeed, their work continues to
ground nursing thought in the new century. The
work of each of these nurse scholars was based on
nursing practice, and today some of this work
might be referred to as practice theories. Concepts
and terms they first used are heard today around
the globe.
This chapter provides a brief overview of each of
these three important twentieth-century nursing
theorists. The content of this chapter is based on
work from scholars who have studied or worked
with these theorists and who wrote chapters about
each for Nursing Theories and Nursing Practice1st
edition. To the extent possible, content written by
each of the identified authors is used. For a wealth
of additional information on these nurses, scholars,
researchers, thinkers, writers, practitioners, and ed-
ucators, please consult the reference and bibliogra-
phy sections at the end of this chapter.
ERNESTINE WIEDENBACH
Wiedenbach was born in 1900 in Germany to an
American mother and a German father who mi-
grated to the United States when Ernestine was a
child. She received a bachelor of arts degree from
Wellesley College in 1922. She graduated from
Johns Hopkins School of Nursing in 1925 (Nickel,
Gesse, & MacLaren, 1992.). After completing a
master of arts at Columbia Univeristy in 1934, she
became a professional writer for the American
Journal of Nursingand played a critical role in the
recruitment of nursing students and military
nurses during World War II. At age 45, she began
her studies in nurse-midwifery. Wiedenbach’s roles
as practitioner, teacher, author and theorist were
consolidated as a member of the Yale University
School of Nursing where Yale colleagues William
Dickoff and Patricia James encouraged her devel-
opment of prescriptive theory (Dickoff, James &
Wiedenbach, 1968). Even after her retirement in
1966, she and her lifelong friend Caroline Falls of-
fered informal seminars in Miami, always remind-
ing students and faculty of the need for clarity of
purpose, based on reality. She even continued to
use her gift for writing to transcribe books for the
blind, including a Lamaze childbirth manual,
which she prepared on her Braille typewriter.
Ernestine Wiedenbach died in April 1998 at the age
of 98 (Gesse & Dombro, 1992, p. 70–71).IDA JEAN ORLANDO
Ida Jean Orlando was born in 1926 in New York.
Her nursing education began at New York Medical
College School of Nursing where she received a
diploma in nursing. In 1951 she received a bachelor
of science degree in public health nursing from
St. John’s University in Brooklyn, New York, and
in 1954 she completed a master’s degree in nurs-
ing from Columbia University. Orlando’s early
nursing practice experience included obstetrics,
medicine, and emergency room nursing. Her first
book, The Dynamic Nurse-Patient Relationship:
Function, Process and Principles(1961), was based
on her research and blended nursing practice,
psychiatric–mental health nursing, and nursing ed-
ucation. It was published when she was director
of the graduate program in mental health and
psychiatric nursing at Yale University School of
Nursing.
Orlando’s theoretical work is both practice and
research-based and was funded by the National
Institute of Mental Health to improve education
of nurses about concepts and interpersonal
relationships. The method of her study was quali-
tative and inductive, using naturalistic inquiry
methods. As a consultant at McLean Hospital in
Belmont, Massachusetts, Orlando continued to
study nursing practice and developed a training
program and nursing service department based on
her theory. From evaluation of this program, she
published her second book, The Discipline and
Teaching of Nursing Process (Orlando, 1972;
Rittman, 1991).VIRGINIA HENDERSON
Born in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1897, Virginia
Henderson was the fifth of eight children. With two
of her brothers serving in the armed forces during
World War I and in anticipation of a critical short-
age of nurses, Virginia Henderson entered the Army
School of Nursing at Walter Reed Army Hospital. It
was there that she began to question the regimen-
talization of patient care and the concept of nurs-
ing as ancillary to medicine (Henderson, 1991).CHAPTER 7 Twentieth-Century Nursing:Wiedenbach, Henderson, and Orlando’s Theories and Their Applications 71