Dorothy Johnson's professional nursing career began in 1942 when she graduated from Vanderbilt University School of Nursing. She was the top student in her class and received the prestigious Vanderbilt Founder's Medal. She worked briefly as a public health nurse and in 1944 returned to Vanderbilt as an instructor in Pediatric Nursing.
In 1949 she joined the faculty of UCLA where she and Lulu K. Wolf Hassenplug developed the "first four year generic basic nursing program in the United States." *Dorothy Johnson was a prolific writer on the subject of nursing theory. Her many publications on this subject profoundly influenced theoretical thinking in nursing during the second half of the twentieth century.*
