About Nurse Scientist Day
The National League for Nursing, the nation’s first nursing association, announces the establishment of Nurse Scientist Day on June 14th, an annual observance to recognize the nurse scientists whose research guides clinical practice, shapes health policy, and educates the next generation of nursing scholars.
June 14th 2026, will be the first annual Nurse Scientist Day in recognition of the discipline of nursing science, first formally enshrined among U.S. federal agencies on June 14th, 1993.
On that day, the Department of Health and Human Services secretary signed the Federal Register notice formally establishing the National Institute of Nursing Research as a full institute of the National Institutes of Health, placing nurse-generated evidence on equal footing with every other science at the NIH.
In the years since, nurse scientists have greatly expanded and tested theories, thereby creating a significant base of knowledge for translation into clinical practice, and helped facilitate the evidence-driven transformation of health care delivery.
To honor the first Nurse Scientist Day, the National League for Nursing has selected Mildred Montag as the inaugural recipient of the NLN Nurse Scientist for Nursing Education Award. Montag was the director and founder of the Adelphi College School of Nursing from 1942 to 1948. In 1948, she pursued a doctoral degree in education at Teachers College at Columbia University.
In her dissertation, The Education of Nursing Technicians, she proposed the creation of associate degree in nursing programs. Montag was a pioneer in advancing nursing from hospital-based programs into the academic environments where most nursing programs live today.
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