Journal of Advanced Nursing, 1996,23,17-24 Virginia Henderson and her timeless writings' Edward J Halloran RN PhD FAAN Associate Professor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Camngton Hall CB *7460, School of Nursing, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-7460, USA Accepted for publication 8 March 1995 HALLORAN E J (1996) foumal of Advanced Nursmg 23, 17-24 Virginia Henderson and her tuneless wntuigs This paper provides a reflection on the vsTitten works of Miss Virginia Avenel Henderson Miss Henderson is a nurse, a scientist, an artist and a quintessential human being — all traits which informed her viTitten output Nursing practice, research and education were all subjects of her extensive chronicle The four- volume Nursing Studies Index is her contnbution to nursmg research Tbe Index was sandwiched between two revisions oi Principles and Practice of Nursing (5th and 6th eds), the placement of which caused the Index to focus on practice and tbe Principles (6tb ed ) to be based on researcb Tbe sixth edition of Principles, written with Gladys Nite and 17 contributors, is considered tbe most important single professional document written in tbe twentietb century Tbe book syntbesizes nursing practice, education, tbeory and researcb m an age when many nurses are cballenged by the seeming incongruity in tbese essential professional functions VAST ARRAY OF INFLUENTIAL PUBLICATIONS Miss Virginia Henderson, senior research associate emeri- tus, Yale University School of Nursing, New Haven, USA, has produced a vast array of influential publications, all of which refiect three essential traits First, Miss Henderson is a scientist, her review, annotation and syn- thesis of the literature pertaining to nurses and their patients is unparalleled m any health science field Second, Miss Henderson is an artist, her art is m wnting and her wntings are elegant, thorough and clear Third, Virginia is a warm, canng human bemg As a sister, aunt and a friend, she suffuses her science and art with a fundamental understanding of herself, and she shares her humanity and her love for her fellow human beings with all who read her works M version of this paper was presented to Miss Virginia A Henderson at the Harkness Auditonum 333 Cedar Street, New Haven, Connecticut, USA as a part of the Yale University School of Nursing, New Haven USA, Sybil Palmer Bellos Lecture on 8 April 1988, in celebration of her 90th birthday, she was bom on 30 November 1897 Art, science and humanity These three traits cannot be examined separately They cannot be weighed or otherwise measured to develop a formula to clone Miss Henderson Nor can these three traits be fashioned into a good modem nurse These are lived traits Textbooks and teachers, as hard as they try, as controlling as they sometimes are, do not make good nurses Reading (art) does help, study (science) also helps But living and an appreciation for human life are the sine qua non of the modem nurse Henderson weaves science, cirt and humanity throughout her wntings A better under- standing of the science and art of nursing, particularly as It relates to our humanity, may be gleaned by reviewing these traits m her timeless wntings Native North Amencans have a phrase in their language used to descnbed people, translated, Inuit means 'human beings' The phrase 'human beings' is entirely mterpret- able without the bias often associated with other terms used to describe people man, woman, black, white, Cerman, Insh, Indian, tall, blonde, old, young Each of these descriptions of a person comes with an mcredible amount of baggage reflecting the human tendency to dicho- tomize or polarize these descriptors It is as if everyone © 1996 Blackweli Science Ltd 17