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Florence Nightengale

Florence Nightengale Florence Nightingale, a well-educated nurse, was recruited along with 38 other nurses for service in a hospital called Scutari during the Crimean War in 1854 . It was Nightingale’s approaches to nursing that produced amazing results. Florence Nightingale was responsible for crucial changes in hospital protocol, a new view on the capabilities and potential of women, and the creation of a model of standards that all future nurses could aspire towards. Florence Nightingale was born on May 12th 1820. Her father, who was a wealthy and intelligent man, believed that women deserved an education. Thus, Florence Nightingale and her sister were educated in Italian, Latin, Greek, History, and Mathematics. This is quite possibly why Ms. Nitghengale was able to achieve what she did in her life. Nightingale excelled at mathematics particularly, and later took on an interest in medicine. At 38 years of age, Nightingale was working as an unpaid superintendent of a London “establishment for gentlewomen during illness”, and came to the attention of Sidney Herbert, the Secretary of War. Herbert recruited Nightingale work at Scutari in 1854. Nightingale was responsible for changing the structure of British medicine and medicinal practice. Before Nightingale applied her methods of sterilization and organization to Scutari, the hospital was appalling, as were most hospitals in that period of time. What Nightingale found when she arrived at her post was a filthy hospital that was lacking supplies of almost every kind, had dying soldiers forced to sleep on the dirty floor due to lack of beds, and no latrines at all. Under Nightingale’s leadership, her team of nurses reduced the mortality rate at the hospital from 60% to a mere 2% in just six month’s time. Nightingale proved her own results through her knowledge of mathematics and statistics. The results that Nightingale achieved using her methods caused her to receive great status from the British press, who referred to her as “The Lady of The Lamp” because of her late night rounds to check on the soldiers in her care. Her praise enabled her to establish a nursing school which taught the procedures and ethics that she had created, bringing about a new line of nurses which possessed a superior knowledge of medicine and hospital maintenance. Thus, the teachings of Florence Nightingale were spread to the next generation of nurses, and to all of the generations to come. Florence Nightingale changed the public’s views of a woman’s potential and capabilities in her era. Victorian women of her age group did not attend universities or pursue professional careers . The success of the Scutari post was amazing, and the fact that a woman achieved these feats was even more astounding to her peers. Nightingale was the first woman to be given the British Order of Merit, in 1907 for her work . From Nightingale’s example, it could be seen that a woman achieving spectacular results was indeed possible, and the inferiority of the female gender was now in question. Florence Nightingale became a role model for other nurses around her. Linda Richards, who visited Ms. Nightingale at her home in England in 1877, said, The one dream of my nursing years was being fulfilled: I was indeed talking with the one woman whose name and the record of whose good works were known throughout the whole civilized world. This role of idol was well suited to Florence Nightingale, as she clearly had earned it. She also developed a Model Hospital Statistical Form for hospitals to collect and produce consistent data and statistics; this furthered her credentials as she was later acknowledged as a “prophetess” in the development of applied statistics. Her reputation as a mathematician was made, and indeed today she is still remembered by many as such. There was now no doubting that Florence Nightingale was an intellectual force to be reckoned with, and if that was true, then perhaps all females had the same potential. This was quite possibly what attracted most female followers to her, the idea that they could follow in her footsteps. Since the death of Florence Nightingale in 1910, her legacy of superior nursing and medicinal care has lived on. An adaptation of the Hippocratic oath, which all doctors must take to practice medicine, was created for nurses and named the Nightingale Pledge, which was first used in the spring of 1893 . Although Nightingale is believed to have had no input or knowledge of its content, the connection of admiration for her work is clear. Nurses today are still modeled under Nightingale’s code of ethics and knowledge. It was Nightingale’s work in the Crimean War, where she was first discovered that lead to this legacy of medicinal practice. Florence Nightingale was a commendable woman. Her motivation to work her skills was only to heal the ill and better the standards of hospitals around the world. Nightingale’s ideals became reality only through her hard work and her innate determination to save lives and cure illnesses. Furthermore, Nightingale overcame the barrier of gender stereotypes. The assumption that a woman could never perform spectacular feats such as these was eradicated through Nightingale’s achievements. Not only did Florence Nightingale change the status of the medicinal practice of her time, but also for generations to come; the female gender was never regarded in the same manner again due to the accomplishments of Florence Nightingale. Bibliography: Bibliography Audain, Cynthia. Florence Nightingale. 3 June 1999. (12 December 2000). Canadian Encyclopedia World Edition. [CD-ROM] 1999 ed. s.v. “Nightingale, Florence.” By M. E. Baly. Encyclopedia Of Medicine. 1989 Edition s.v. “History of Nursing.” By Charles B. Clyman, MD. Lipsey, Sally. Mathematical Education in the Life of Florence Nightingale. 18 February 1998. (12 December 2000). McDonald, Lynn. Florence Nightingale and the Foundations of Public Health Care, as seen through her Collected Works. 17 February 2000. (12 December 2000). Medical Creeds. (12 December 2000). Nilaya, Bruce. The Lady With The Lamp. (12 December 2000). Nilaya, Bruce. The Crimean War. (12 December 2000). Orem, Dorothea E. Nursing: Concepts of Practice. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1985. Seacole, Mary. Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988. Terrot, Sarah Anne. Nurse Sarah Anne: with Florence Nightingale at Scutari. London: J. Murray, 1977.

Word Count: 893