Henderson's early education was at home in Virginia with her aunts and her uncle at an all-boys school. In 1921, Henderson graduated from the US Army School of Nursing in
Washington, D.C. She received a
BS in 1931 or 1932 and a
Master's degree in 1934 from
Teachers College, Columbia University. Henderson's career in
public health nursing began in 1921 at the
Henry Street Settlement in
Manhattan, New York. She worked for the
Visiting Nurse Association of Washington, D.C., from 1921 to 1923. She was the first full-time nursing instructor in Virginia where she worked at the Norfolk Presbyterian Hospital from 1924 to 1929. Henderson taught at Teachers College, Columbia University from 1934 to 1948. In 1953 she became a research associate at
Yale School of Nursing transitioning to emeritus status in 1971 continuing to serve in that position until 1996. She also traveled the world throughout her career to help and encourage not only nurses, but other healthcare workers. She was the author of the 1939 (4th ed.) revision of Bertha Harmer's
Textbook of Principles and Practices of Nursing when the original author died. She was co-author for the fifth (1955) and sixth (1978) editions. Until 1975, the fifth edition was the most widely used nursing textbook in English and Spanish. She developed one of the major
nursing theories. "Henderson's Model" has been used throughout the world for standardizing nursing practice. The
Nursing Studies Index, a twelve-year project she directed, covered the first sixty years of nursing research. It was considered an essential reference for years. Another important publication was,
Nursing Research: A Survey and Assessment written with Leo Simmons. Her work is credited with shifting the focus of nursing research "from studying nurses to studying the differences that nurses can make in people's lives." She always told the patients of the nurse's obligations instead of the doctor's obligations, making nurses more beneficial to doctors. ==Honors==