Margretta Madden Styles

In recognition of the Year of the Nurse and the Midwife initiative, AJN will periodically highlight the works of key nursing leaders. Sometimes it will be in the form of articles from our archives, at other times it will be excerpts from or summaries of nurses' work with related commentary. Here, courtesy of Margretta Madden Styles's daughter, we've reprinted Styles's "Declaration of Belief About the Nature and Purpose of Nursing," originally published in her book, On Nursing: Toward a New Endowment (C.V. Mosby Company, 1982). We hope it will inspire you.