Florence Nightingale's Impact On Nursing

Florence Nightingale is arguably the most influential nurse that has ever lived. She was named after her birthplace Florence, Italy. Her life spanned from May 12th, 1820 to August 13th, 1910; but her impact on nursing as a profession will live on forever. From a young age, Nightingale was exposed to hospitals and their contents, developing an interest in taking care for those who were ill. She also disliked the lack of opportunities presented to women in the workplace. Her interest in taking care of the sick, and in providing women with better opportunities fueled her research and nursing advances. Some of her major impacts include an increase in health standards through gathering and presentation of sanitation statistics, a greater view of

When Florence was born nurses weren’t seen as anything more than prostitutes. Due to her war efforts, and overall healing abilities she began to give nursing a face. She was known as the ‘lady of the lamp’ to men and women throughout the war. Male doctors came to her and offered her full compliance if she would assist in aiding their ill. People took note of this and realized that these nurses were crucial in the healing process. All the men who even so much as witnessed the caregiving power of these nurses had to give their respect. Because of Nightingale’s efforts the world began to shift its view on nursing. Nursing became a respected line of duty, and something women could be proud to be a part of. Nightingale is often talked of as one of the first great feminists of the world because of how empowering she was to other female nurses. She gave women chances and a drive to be something other than a maid or a stay at home mother. These were the first positive outlooks on nursing, which lead to nursing becoming something more than just a position in the health

She thought that becoming a nurse was something that changed your life instead of it just being a simple way for women to make money. The writings and teachings of Nightingale transformed the view of nursing into that of a scholarly, fulfilling vocational effort for wellness. Her most well-known teachings of nursing come from her writing piece Notes on Nursing: What it is and What it is Not. It establishes a clear view on who a nurse is, and why they are important. What she writes may be looked at today as common sense, but at the time her ideas were ground breaking. She wrote that taking care of a patient is about taking care of all their aspects of health, recognizing that patients are people too. A good amount of the time when people used to get sick they were sent away from society often expected to die. Nightingale believed that everyone who is ill deserves a chance to be treated. However, she also drew boundaries as to what nurses should do. She made it very clear that the doctors should be the ones deciding on medicine and treatment, while nurses are still equally important. This piece of writing alone challenged women to become nurses, and proved the title of nursing to be something you had to earn. It offered guidance to the nursing community, and propelled the respect for nurses even further in a society that had just began to accept