Nursing the community, a look back at the 1984 dialogue between Virginia A. Henderson and Sherry L. Shamansky

Dr. Sherry L. Shamansky, one of the founding editors of Public Health Nursing, interviewed renowned 20th-century leader, Virginia Avenal Henderson (1897-1996), then research associate emeritus at Yale University School of Nursing, about the nursing of "aggregates." Their discussion, originally published in Public Health Nursing, in 1984 (Vol. 1, No. 4), highlights Henderson's views about the scope of nursing, health care organization and funding, and perceived tension between direct care of the sick in the community and preventive activities directed toward communities or populations at risk. Readers familiar with Henderson's influential definition of nursing may find her responses to interview questions helpful in understanding her view of the opportunities and challenges faced by public or community health nurses of the time.