Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale lived a fulfilling and compassionate life. There were many unique and interesting accomplishments which made her life so different that no author can capture everything this one woman accomplished.
“Sisters in Mercy,” written by John Donohue was a brief article of Florence Nightingales life. Donohue also wrote briefly of the strong relationship between Nightingale and Mother Mary Moore whom she met during the Crimean War and befriended.
This article begins by explaining of Nightingales experiences during the Crimean War. She transformed a wretched old army barracks in Scutari into a working, cleaner hospital environment in order to effectively treat the wounded soldiers. She also noted that many of the soldiers were not only injured but they were disease stricken from, typhus, cholera and dysentery. After the war she returned to England and spent the rest of her life in her town home. She worked extensively from home writing to different people in different areas of the world to help promote sanitation reforms. Donohue wrote of Nightingale’s ability to make reforms were from her, “rich and well-positioned family she had direct lines with leaders of the British government from prime ministers on down.” He also mentioned that Nightingale’s intelligence and forceful personality also contributed to her reforms.
Nightingale is a woman that can be admired for many different things. People may appreciate her holistic views, while others are intrigued at her ability to work problems out through letter writing.
Mother Moore and Nightingale had a very rewarding friendship they both believed strongly in opposite religions but they were still able to help each other become more spiritual in their own religious beliefs.
The way Donohue wrote this article was sometimes difficult for me to understand his point of view on Florence Nightingale. The beginning of the article was meant to be sarcastic, yet it took me a couple of times to gather that. There was also a mention of Hilary Clinton, and I was very taken back by the mention of her name. I guess if the entire article was meant to be sarcastic then I could understand him mentioning Mrs.
McKusick, James C. "The Return of the Nightingale." The Wordsworth Circle 38 (Winter/ Spring 2007): 34-38.
After graduating, Florence received a job in a Middlesex hospital for ailing governesses (Nash 1925). Her work ethic was very impressing that after a short time, Nightingale was moved to superintendent of the hospital. The job proved to be just as challenging as it sounded. The outbreak of disease and unsanitary conditions had Nightingale in frenzy. It would be up to her to improve unsanitary conditions and decrease the fast spread of disease.
In today’s society nursing is seen as both a vocation and a profession. It requires knowledge, compassion and skill and is not for the faint of heart. Nurses are respected and trusted, as well as relied upon by people when they are at their most vulnerable. However this has not always been the case, as Florence Nightingale once put it nursing was left to “those who were too old, too weak, too drunken, too dirty, too stupid or too bad to do anything else” (1). It was not until the mid-1800’s that nursing was thought to require both skill and training and was not a respected profession (2). Opportunities for nursing outside the home were very limited as before 1880, the hospital treatment of illness was fairly rare. Where home services were adequate, a sick person was attended to by the family doctor and nursed at home either by female family members or highly trusted servants (2).
What would Florence Nightingale think of the United States health insurance today? The availability of health insurance in 1860 to 1900 was virtually nonexistent. In 1798, The United States Congress established the U.S. Marine Hospital that serviced military seaman. This was the earliest form of coverage for health insurance. Soon after this time, the Travelers Insurance Company established our first form accident insurance in 1863 (Scofea, 1994). During this time, the Civil War was taking place in our country. The astounding number of deaths due to disease and illness helped pave the way for advancing medical practice in the United States. With the help of the American Red, the development of health care organizations progressed (American
Florence Nightingale was the Nurse of Nurses. In nursing school she is the first person you will hear speak of. She is known as “The lady with the lamp”. Her theory focused on the adjustment of the environment provided to protect the patient. She thought that a sleeping patient should never be awaken. Noise should always be avoided because it can startle the sleeping patient. This was a serious problem to her. She delegated tasks to other nurses, always keeping the patients safe and away from harm.
First, Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) was born into a wealthy family in Florence, Italy. Her father valued education so he taught her. Her family didn’t want her to be a nurse because back then nurses were looked down upon and were lower class. She left for Germany and got formal training on being a nurse. She became a superintendent of a hospital and then went to help in the Crimean War. She noticed the conditions of the hospitals during the war and she started to improve hygiene, nutrition, and level of care. She opened a nurse training school and reformed the army hospitals. She wrote a book about being a nurse. She believed nurses should require training and be educated. Florence Nightingale’s legacy of caring focuses on nursing and the
Florence Nightingale was the first woman to take an interest in the health of other...
When Nightingale was 16 years of age, she cared for the sick villagers near her family’s home. At this point in her life she knew nursing was what she wanted to pursue. In 1854 she was asked to put together a team of nurses who could care for sick and injured soldiers. She gathered thirty-eight other nurses together to staff a hospital overseas for the British army during the Crimean War. Nightingale trained herself for this great profession we call nursing, as she approached the hospital she knew what steps she needed to take to get her patients well. The first step was cleaning up the environment, the hospital was not what she expected at all! Towels contained dry blood and sewage discharge. She was not very big on the concept of bacterial infection; she did not accept the crowding and unsanitary environment. Although Florence was a very successful woman and due to her desire to help others nursing has
In 1854 the legendary Florence Nightingale received a letter from the Secretary of War asking to organize a corps of nurses to clean and tend to the sick soldiers in the Crimea. Haltingly, young Florence and the nurses were shipped over to Scutari where the British base hospital was located. On the fourth of November in 1854, arrived in Turkey and witnessed the poor care for soldiers that were being treated by a worn out medical staff. Conditions were unbearable to her, soldiers lying in their own excrement through the hospital's hallways, the hospital was infested with rodents and bugs. The most common medical supplies such as bandages and soap were nowhere to be found. Outraged by the way the health of the common soldier was being treated
Florence Nightingale, named after the city of Florence, was born in Florence, Italy, on May 12, 1820. She would pursue a career in nursing and later find herself studying data of the soldiers she so cringingly looking after. Born into the Crimean War, Florence Nightingale took the lead role amongst her and her colleges to improve the inhabitable hospitals all across Great Britten; reduce the death count by more than two-thirds. Her love for helping people didn’t go unnoticed and would continue to increase throughout her life. In 1860 she opened up the St. Tomas’ Hospital and the Nightingale Training School for Nurses before passing August 13, 1910 in London. Her willingness to care for her patients was never overlooked and wound establishing
2). Florence Nightingale began the foundation for nursing as a profession (Roux & Halstead, 2018, p. 6). She was an inspiration of her time. Her father educated her when women of her time were typically not educated. She began the vision of nursing practice and theory development and the foundation of nursing philosophy. Florence helped evolve nursing and the recognition of nursing as an academic discipline. Her school educated nurses in theory and clinical experiences which had not been taught previously (Roux & Halstead, 2018, p. 7). She began the concept that caring for the sick is based on knowledge of the person and their surroundings (Alligood, 2014, p. 3).
Pettinger, Tejvan. "Florence Nightingale Biography." Biography Online. N.p., 25 Nov. 2010. Web. 13 Feb. 2014. .
The extract from General Sir John Burgoyne to Lord Raglan could be considered relatively limited in terms of identifying the impact Florence Nightingale had on medical care in Scutari. The source provides insight on the influence of Nightingale’s compassionate attitude. There is a brief comment on the mental state of those wounded in Scutari, who were noticeably appearing in a way that indicated “amendment rather than despondence”. This suggests that Nightingale’s presence and changes to the management greatly improved the wellbeing of the soldiers and the medical care they received.
I enjoyed reading your post. I think Florence Nightingale had a lot of courage, because her believes were completely different from what was the common practice of the time. Unfortunately, people like Ignaz Semmelweis did not had the recognition he deserved for introducing the practice of washing the hands as a way to prevent cross contamination.
Born in 1820 in Florence, Italy Nightingale, had all the privileges to become part of the aristocratic society, but chose to serve the disadvantaged and the poor (Butts & Rich, 2015). Florence Nightingale was reported to be “a strong willed and clear thinking individual who was persistently driven to achieve her goals in life (Stanley & Sherratt, 2010). Unlike many Victorian women, she had found a singleness of purpose and in spite of family and social opposition, sought to promote herself into a career as a social reformer” (Stanley & Sherratt, 2010, p.