About Marjory Gordon
Marjory Gordon Ph.D., RN, FAAN, FNI, was professor emerita at the Connell School of Nursing for 23 years, and was a rare visionary whose work remains as relevant today as it was during its beginnings.
Dr. Marjory Gordon
In 1973, Dr. Gordon, along with other nursing leaders, embarked on an effort to capture nursing’s phenomena of concern, name and define these phenomena, and develop a framework that has helped to inform nursing knowledge, the Standards of Nursing Practice, nursing curricula, clinical research, and ultimately the scope of professional nursing practice, internationally.
She is most well-known for aiding in the advancement of the nursing diagnosis movement across North America, and for her development of the Eleven Functional Health Patterns, an assessment framework that has provided generations of nurses with a format to organize patient data and develop a clinical judgment, i.e. a nursing diagnosis.
Dr. Gordon was at the forefront of work on clinical reasoning and nursing language development—a groundbreaking achievement that has given nurses a voice in patient care outcomes and has led to the adoption of nursing language for electronic medical recordkeeping. She was named a Living Legend in the American Academy of Nursing and was the author of multiple papers and books.
For this profound work, and more importantly for her personal leadership and dedication to the field, the Marjory Gordon Program for Knowledge Development and Clinical Reasoning was established. Within this program, The Marjory Gordon International Gordon Fellows Program has been established to promote the continued advancement of nursing knowledge about patients' response to illness, clinical reasoning and decision making, and patient care delivery.
Archival Material
These records are available thanks to the John J. Burns Library at Boston College, which offers students, scholars, and the general public opportunities to engage with rare books, special collections, and archives. Information about how to use the Burns Library Reading Room and reference services is available here.
Abstract: These papers document the career of twentieth-century Boston College nursing faculty member Marjory Gordon. Her research, conference papers, workshop materials, draft publications, notes, and correspondence demonstrate her impact on the adoption of nursing diagnoses and functional health patterns to shift the role of nurses within the medical profession and create the nomenclature necessary to include nursing diagnoses in electronic records systems as they were developed.
Abstract: These records document the creation and management of the Massachusetts Conference Group for the Classification of Nursing Diagnosis, a twentieth-century American regional nursing organization. Records include bibliographies, brochures, committee and board minutes, correspondence, mailings, membership lists, and papers presented at meetings.
Abstract: These records document the work of the Task Force of the National Conference Group on the Classification of Nursing Diagnoses, subsequently North American Nursing Diagnosis Association (NANDA) and then NANDA International (NANDA-I). This organization develops controlled nomenclature of nursing diagnoses through biennial conferences and standing committees. Records comprise conference materials, the Nursing Diagnosis newsletter, and files of the presidents and executive directors, including founding chair of the Task Force and first president of NANDA, Marjory Gordon.
A Timeline
- 1973
Mary Ann Lavin and Kristine Gebbie convene the First Task National Force to Name and Classify Nursing Diagnosis in St Louis, Missouri.
- 1973-1982
Marjory Gordon serves as the first chairperson of the “Task force of the National Conference Group on Classification of Nursing Diagnoses at St. Louis University. SLU served as a depository for Nursing Diagnosis developed, Speakers bureau and Newsletter dissemination.
- 1974
First Conference Proceedings published and edited by Gebbie and Lavin. Subsequent Proceedings Editors included Derry Moritz, Gertrude McFarland. Audrey Mc Lane, Mi Ja Kim and Rosemary Carroll Johnson.
- 1977
Work by the Nurse Theorist group began, facilitated by Sr. Callista Roy. In 1982, the theorists (including Sr. Callista Roy, Martha Rogers, Margaret Newman, Dorothea Orem, Imagine King) proposed an organizing framework for Nursing Diagnosis called “Patterns of Unitary Man” to NANDA and the Taxonomy Committee.
- 1982
North American Nursing Diagnosis Association (NANDA) created. Marjory Gordon elected the first President from 1982-1988
- 1988
Taxonomy 1 ( the Orange Book) developed. Phyllis Kritek chairperson (other Chairs included Joyce Fitzpatrick, Kay Avant and Martha Craft-Rosenberg).
- 1990
- Nursing Diagnosis - The official Journal of the Association developed, Rosemary Carroll Johnson first editor, J.B. Lippincott, published.
- The NANDA Journal became the International Journal of Nursing Terminologies and Classifications, under Wiley Publishing Company
- 1997
First joint meeting of NANDA, NIC and NOC (the first 3N Conference).
- 2002
- NANDA Archives established in the Burns Library at Boston College , Chestnut Hill, MA
- The North American Nursing Diagnosis Association becomes an international Association and is renamed NANDA International (NANDA-I)
- 2003
NNN Conference held (Chicago) published Proceedings Dochterman, J. M., , Jones, D.A. Unifying nursing languages: The harmonization of NANDA, NIC and NOC. Included the original NNN Taxonomy.(NurseBooks.org, Washington, D.C. ISBN 1-55810-208-6).
- 2008
- NANDA-I elected its first president from outside North America (UK)
- NANDA-I established the role of the Executive Director/Chief Executive Officer to manage operations of the Association.
- 2016
The NANDA-I journal became the International Journal of Nursing Knowledge.
- 2017
NANDA-I sought an academic partner to provide a strategic linkage for future researchers to study clinical reasoning and nursing diagnosis. After a review of five finalist universities, the Marjory Gordon Program for Clinical Reasoning and Knowledge Development was established as the partnership between the Connell School of Nursing at Boston College and NANDA International.
- 2018
NANDA-I partnered with Thieme Medical Publishers to develop a relational database to provide the NANDA-I classification to electronic health record providers, and as our primary publishing partner for the NANDA-I Nursing Diagnoses: Definitions and Classification text. Igaku-Shoin LTD. (Japan), and Grupo A (Brazil) are identified as strategic publishing partners.
- 2023
NANDA-I celebrates its 50th Anniversary at Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA.