Every other year, the ANA inducts up to five nurses into the Hall of Fame. This prestigious honor recognizes an individual's lifelong commitment to nursing and his or her impact on the health or social history of the United States. The following nurses will be inducted into the Hall of Fame on July 1 during ANA's Convention in Philadelphia, PA.

Harriet Patience Dame
1815-1900

Harriet Patience Dame's leadership, advocacy, innovation and expert ability to provide holistic care to the sick and wounded stands as a true testament to the nursing profession. The Civil War nurse's advocacy led to a dramatic change in the way the military delivered health care. And she repeatedly rose to challenges presented to her no matter how monumental.

When Union General Joseph Hooker announced that all soldiers who could not walk to Harrison's Landing, VA, would be left behind to certain death, Dame first organized the sick and wounded so they could help each other during the 120-mile trek and later won space for them on wagons. Her leadership saved the lives of many.

A selfless caregiver, the New Hampshire native was appointed matron of the 18th Corps Hospital at Broadway, where for several months she served as the sole nurse. She also convinced the Surgeon General to ensure that every military boat had proper hospital accommodations, supplies and at least one surgeon on board.

She served as the second president of the Army Nurses Association, and because of her service, a Senate bill was introduced in the 48th Congress to provide pensions to nurses who worked on the battlefield or in hospitals during the Civil War.

Sadie Heath Cabaniss, RN
1863-1921

Sadie Health Cabaniss was a pioneer nurse in the truest sense. The Virginia nurse developed the first training school for nurses in her state that followed the Nightingale plan, and that school exists to this day as the School of Nursing at Virginia Commonwealth University.

She also convinced existing training schools in Virginia to form alumni associations, and then she called on representatives from these groups to come together in 1901 to create what now is known as the Virginia Nurses Association. As president of her state organization, she helped draft a measure that would regulate the practice of nursing in the Commonwealth. Once the bill was enacted in 1903, she was one of the original members of the Virginia State Board of Examiners of Nurses, and served as its president throughout her two terms.

In addition to her advocacy for the profession, she was a public health advocate. She founded the Nurses Settlement of Richmond, VA, where nurses provided care to patients in their homes. She also helped develop dispensaries for patients with tuberculosis who could not be admitted to local hospitals. And, she established the first rural visiting nurses service in Virginia and brought her public health skills and knowledge to other states, as well.

Veronica Margaret Driscoll, EdD, RN
1926-1994

During a career that spanned more than 45 years, Veronica M. Driscoll proved her commitment to advancing the profession time and time again. In her role as assistant executive director of the New York State Nurses Association's (NYSNA's) economic security program, she helped registered nurses employed in New York City municipal hospitals win increased wages, benefits and improved practice environments. Her leadership in this campaign prevented nurses from resigning en masse.

Later as NYSNA's executive director, from 1969 to 1979, Driscoll was instrumental in doubling membership, streamlining operations and establishing NYSNA as the largest collective bargaining agent for RNs in the country. She was key to ensuring the enactment of the groundbreaking 1972 New York State Nurse Practice Act. Driscoll later served as the first executive director of the Foundation of the NYSNA

In other efforts, she staffed the committee that prepared A Blueprint for the Education of Nurses in New York State, which promoted strengthening nursing's educational base through higher education. On the national scene, she served on important ANA bodies, including the ANA Commission on Economic and General Welfare, on which she served as chairperson.

Mary Lewis Wyche, RN
1858-1936

Mary Lewis Wyche graduated from the diploma program at Philadelphia General Hospital in 1894 at the age of 36. It clearly was only the start of an amazing nursing career in which she focused her energies on improving professional nursing in her home state of North Carolina -- despite the cultural constraints of her time.

In education, Wyche foresaw the need to standardize nursing school educational requirements. She established three schools, one of which is still known today for the quality of its nursing program. In a time when women couldn't vote, she mobilized support for the regulation of nursing practice in the North Carolina legislature, resulting in the first practice act in the U.S. in 1903. She was appointed to the North Carolina Board of Nurse Examiners, and served as secretary-treasurer from 1903-1908.

She was a firm believer in professional nursing associations. In 1901, she mailed invitations to nurses she knew asking them to discuss forming a nursing organization. When no one came to the meeting, she sent out a second mailing describing the excitement generated at the event and extended another invitation to meet. The group of nurses who agreed to meet formed the North Carolina State Nurses in 1902, and Wyche served as its president for five years.

Susie Walking Bear Yellowtail, RN
1903-1981

While working with the then Indian Health Service from 1929 to1931, Susie Walking Bear Yellowtail helped to bring modern health care to her own people and to end abuses in the Indian health care system, such as the sterilization of Native American women without their consent. She effectively communicated Native American culture and perspectives to non-Indians throughout the country then as well as throughout her public service career.

From 1930 to 1960, the Montana nurse traveled throughout North American reservations to assess the health, social and educational problems Native Americans faced. One of her assessment's revealed that acutely ill Native American children were literally dying on the backs of their mothers, who often had to walk 20 to 30 miles to get to one of the five hospitals that served 160,000 Navajo. She also provided midwifery services to Native American and other women in the Little Horn Valley for 30 years.

Through her work with the then Department of Health, Education and Welfare, the founder of the Native American Nurses Association was instrumental in winning tribal and government funding to help Native Americans enter the nursing profession. In 1962, Yellowtail received the President's Award for Outstanding Nursing Health Care.