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.
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.
Before Nightingale, nurses were lower class citizens that were alcoholics or prostitutes with no to a little education. Florence Nightingale realized that nurses ought to have some education in caring for others and be of a higher class. In 1860, she opened the first nursing school in London that did not accept prostitutes and alcoholics. To signify Nightingale’s view of nursing, Lystra Gretter composed a Hippocratic Oath for nurses called the Nightingale pledge.
Nightingale’s mother was a very different compared to her father. Fanny Nightingale was determined to get her daughter to marry. However, Nightingale disliked this prospect, and by the age of 25 she had already refused several suitors. Instead she became very interested in looking after the ill, and it was at this time she decided to become a nurse. Her parents disagreed with her decision, as nursing was seen as something of working class women, and therefore below her.
Florence Nightingale was a pioneer in nursing and maintained it as an independent profession which was not secondary to the medical profession but equal. *Nightingale 1969 cited by Hoeve et al 2013
In order for Florence to be successful in leading these women ultimately into a place of war she needed to have trust and a good reputation for herself. Something that shows the reputation of Florence Nightingale was the fact that at the time there were no female nurses in the Crimean War. The war office avoided hiring more after their poor reputation, nevertheless Nightingale received a letter
Registered nurses work to contribute good health and prevent illness. They also treat patients and help go through there rehabilitation and also give support and advice to patients family. Registered nurses are general-duty nurses who focus in the achievement of caring for their patients. They are under the supervision of a doctor. As I researched this career It brought more questions to my life. It became a big interest that soon I would have an opportunity to answer my own questions obviously with the help of others.
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.
In 1849 Florence went abroad to study the European hospital system. In 1853 she became the superintendent for the Hospital for Invalid Gentlewomen in London. In 1854 Florence raised the economic and productive aspect of women's status by volunteering to run all the nursing duties during the Crimean War. With her efforts the mortality rates of the sick and wounded soldiers was reduced. While being a nurse was her profession and what she was known for, she used statistics to achieve...
Florence Nightingale is a very prominent person in the medical field. She had a strong desire to devote her life to helping others. She is known as the founder of modern medicine. The Nightingale Pledge is taken by new nurses and was named in her honor. The annual International Nurses Day is celebrated on her birthday. Without her contributions healthcare would not be what it is today.
A theory I can relate to is Nightingales theory, I found her theory to be extremely interesting. A patient health is affected by the environment that they are in, whether it is at the hospital or at their house. Once a patient is discharged the nurse should be aware of the patient home environment, what they have access to, and what they don’t have.
To this day, the most admired person in nursing history would be Florence Nightingale. She will forever be an influential figure in the world of nursing due to her perseverance and critical thinking skills that saved so many lives during the Crimean War. There is no way to tell how long it could have taken nursing to evolve without the help of Nightingale. In her book, Notes on Nursing: What It Is and What It Is Not, Nightingale described a multitude of factors that must be considered when helping the ill to recover and to have the healthy maintain their well-being (Nightingale, 1860/1969). Four chapters in her book are of high importance, chapter two, on Health of Homes, chapter
Before the modernization and reform of their profession in the mid-1800s, nurses were believed to perform “women’s work”, which implied menial duties, unskilled service, and an overall lack of skill (Garey, "Sentimental women need not apply"). This mentality was substantiated by the “untrained attendants, [including] past patients, vagrants, and prostitutes,” that performed a variety of nursing tasks (Garey). Florence Nightingale’s nursing experiences during the Crimean War, her subsequent publication of Notes on Nursing, and her work to build up professionalism within the field transformed the way that the world and society viewed nursing. She introduced invigorating ideas of patient care, nursing roles and responsibilities, and was a strong proponent of nursing education. Nightingale’s overall work inspired and changed the profession of nursing, laying the foundation for its
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
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.
It was during this training that Florence Nightingale received a request from Henry Parkes, in Sydney, for a team of trained nurses able to implement Florence’s nursing standards in the Sydney Infirmary and Dispensary. Florence Nightingale decided that Ms. Osburn, as a middle class woman with nursing training, would be the most appropriate choice to undertake this mission and made her Lady Superintendent (Australian Dictionary of Biography, 1974). Ms. Osburn worked for sixteen years at the Sydney Hospital, implementing many reforms to the nursing structure, hygiene, and facilities. She was eventually successful in implementing Nightingales style of nursing in Australia, before retiring in 1884 (Godden, J. and Forsyth, S.,