“I attribute my success to this-I never gave or took any excuse.” These words spoken by Florence Nightingale showed that she was hard working and determined to make a difference in the field that she felt was her calling. Florence Nightingale was a nurse who spent her night roundscaring for the wounded, establishing her image as “Lady with the Lamp.” “The very first requirement in a hospital is that it should do the sick no harm” – Florence Nightingale. She was a heroic woman because she was a fantastic female nurse, cured the ill and was a great team leader (Florence Bio).
Florence Nightingale was born on May 12th 1820 into a very wealthy family. As she grew up, she recognized that she had a calling to help the sick and poor and decided she wanted to become a nurse. Her parents were not happy with her decision. Being a nurse was not respectable, nor thought of as a proper profession. Therefore, they did not want this for their daughter. Eventually, her father gave his permission for her to go to Germany where
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she gained some nursing experience at the Deaconess Institution Hospital for the ill (Slanders). There were no female nurses stationed at hospitals in Crimea. The poor reputation of past female nurses had led the war office to avoid hiring more. After the Battle of Alma, England was in an uproar about the neglect of their ill and injured soldiers, who not only lacked sufficient medical attention due to hospitals being horrible unsatisfied, but was also terribly unsanitary and under inhumane conditions. The government only expected The Crimean War to last a few months, but it ended up lasting 2 years. The number of injured soldiers was unexpected, and this was one reason why the hospitals were in such a bad condition (Florence The). After the war, Nightingale had been diagnosed with “Crimean Fever” and would never fully recover.
By the time she was only 38 years old, she was homebound and bedridden for the remainder of her life. Determined and dedicated as ever to improve health care and reduce patients suffering, she continued her work from her bed (Florence Bio).
Florence Nightingale cured the ill. She spent every walking minute caring for the injured soldiers. In the evenings, she moved through the dark hallways carrying a lamp while making her rounds, tending to patient after patient. The soldiers who were not only moved but comforted by her endless supply of compassion, gave her the nickname “the Lady with the Lamp”. Others called her “the Angel of Crimea”. Her hard work reduced the hospitals death rate by two-tirds. Nothing could have prepared Nightingale and her nurses for what they saw when they arrived at the British base hospital in Constantinople (Florence
Bio). The hospital sat on top of a large cesspool, which contaminated not only the water but the hospital building itself. Patients lay in their own feces on stretchers scattered throughout the hallways. Rodents and bugs scurried through the building. The most basic supplies, such as bandages and soap, grew scarce as the number of ill and wounded increased. Even water needed to be rationed. More soldiers were dying from infectious diseases like typhoid and cholera than from injuries incurred in battle. Nightingale quickly set to work. She obtained hundreds of scrub brushes and asked the least frail patients to scrub the inside of the hospital from floor to ceiling (Florence Bio). Florence Nightingale was a great team leader. As a leader, she had a vision. She envisioned nursing going from inpatient care to outpatient and home based care. During that time it seemed like a dream but it is now a reality. Home based health care has taken the fore front of nursing (Customwritingtips.com). In 1854, Nightingale received a letter from Secretary of War asking her to organize a corps of nurses to tend to the sick and falled soldiers in the Crimea. Nightingale gathered together a team of 34 nurses and they sailed to Crimea. In addition to improving the sanitary conditions of the hospital, Nightingale created a number of patient services that contributed to improving the quality of their hospital stay. She instituted the creation of an "invalid's kitchen" where food for patients with special dietary requirements was cooked. She established a laundry so that patients would have clean linens. She also established a classroom and a library for patients intellectual stimulation and entertainment (Florence Bio). In the 1800’s, nurses had a reputation of being drunk and dishonest. But today, nursing is one of the most important professions in the medical field. Florence Nightingale not only changed the public’s way of seeing nurses but also changed the way nursing is conducted. Florence insisted nurses to be sober and honest. She wanted nurses to give their patients honest information about their health because she didn’t believe in false hope (From). In conclusion, Nightingale forged a road for many to follow. Nightingale revolved her life around helping the ill, therefore she never married nor had children. Florence Nightingale was a heroic woman because she was a fantastic female nurse, cured the ill and was a great team leader. Nursing is forever changed based upon Nightingales studies and her life long dedication.
notices to patients and their families, schedule and lead the meetings. Wishing to be actively involved in the process, I represented nursing along with the charge nurse of the unit and the charge aide.
“Apprehension, uncertainty, waiting, expectation, fear of surprise, do a patient more harm than any exertion. Remember he is face to face with his enemy all the time, internally wrestling with him” (Nightingale, 1992, p. 22). Fortunately, in the nineteenth century, Florence Nightingale recognized uncertainty could cause harm to her patients (Nightingale, 1992). Equally important to the nursing profession are the nursing theorists, their work, and the evolution of the theories that followed Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing (Alligood, 2014).
Nightingale was born on May 12, 1820 in the Villa La Columbaia in Florence, Italy. Her father was a Whig, a Unitarian, and an abolitionist . He played a major part in Nightingale’s education, teaching her several foreign languages, such as Greek and German, and also teaching her math, history, and philosophy.
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.
To expand, in 1854, Nightingale and a team of 38 nurses went to Crimea to help wounded soldiers.
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.
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
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 remembered throughout the world for her labors in the field of nursing. Florence Nightingale was born in Italy in 1820...
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.
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
She was criticized by many people; nevertheless she forged onward and remained committed to helping the soldiers. Nightingale understood the psychological connection to healing and actually believed that nurses should always speak up when things was unacceptable or inadequate (Steele, 2017). The same values and beliefs that Nightingale displayed is the reason I continue to practice nursing. Nursing provides me with countless opportunities to deliver excellent, administer effective healthcare, and promote well-being among each of my patients. I take pride in being an advocate for patients who depend on my medical knowledge and critical thinking to provide the best treatment
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 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
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.