Author: Neil Alvin Ricardo
If modern nursing had a brand, it would have been “Florence Nightingale”.
Principles in modern nursing are completely derived from the teachings and examples of Nightingalethat it is not hard to pick out particular practices that owe their existence to her influence.
Photo Credit: Wikipedia
The Lady with a Lamp
The English woman is revered as the founder of modern nursing after her substantial contributions to health statistics.
According to her, the hospital case-fatality rate during the first months of her arrival in the Crimean War in the mid-1800s increased.
Although Nightingale did not accept the concept of bacterial infection, she deplored crowding and unsanitary conditions.
She put her nurses to work on sanitizing the wards and bathing and clothing patients.
Nightingale addressed the more basic problems of providing decent food and water, ventilating the wards, and curbing rampant corruption that was decimating medical supplies.
She had to overcome an hostile military bureaucracy by paying for remedies using support from private sources, including her own funds.
She also kept careful statistics. Within six months, the hospital case fatality had dropped.
When Nightingale returned to London, she was already a celebrated national hero.
Nightingale, circa 1858 Photo Credit: Wikipedia
Her Legacy to a Healthy World
At age 40, she suffered from what may have been chronic fatigue syndrome.
Although she lived as a solitary life for the next 50 years, she continued to influence nursing and public health. She wrote letters, books, conference presentations and personal persuasion.
Despite her poor health which left her uneasy, Nightingale worked tirelessly until her death at 90.
As a passionate statistician, she conducted extensive researches. She published over 200 reports and pamphlets on a wide range of issues including hygiene, hospital administration and design, midwifery and health care for the poor.
Florence Nightingale (middle) in 1886 with her graduating class of nurses from St Thomas’ outside Claydon House, Buckinghamshire Photo Credit: Wikipedia
Although Nightingale died nearly a century ago, her contributions to modern nursing are felt today. From proper wound care and the sterile conditions of the modern operating room to the current shift from hospital care to outpatient and home health care, it all started with an affluent, young and visionary woman named Florence.