Florence Nightingale: A Brief History Of Military Nursing

Florence Nightingale is known as the founder of modern nursing. Her contributions and influence not only to the nursing profession, but to the public health care system, is unparalleled. She was instrumental in establishing multiple processes and practices that are still in current practice. She has influenced many nursing theorist and prevailing theories during her career. Many of her changes continue to influence theory development today.

Over 5000 volunteer nurses’ north and south served in military hospitals during the Civil War. Nurses were of all sorts and came from all over. Women wanted to be involved in this national struggle in any way they could. They did not want to stay home and play their traditional domestic roles that social convention and minimal career opportunities had confined the majority of their sex to. Many women thought of nursing as an extension of their home duties, almost like taking care of “their boys.” They recall the Civil War as a time when their work as nurses made a difference. It gave them an opportunity to prove they had the ability and courage to help.

There are many names that come to mind when we think of prominent figures in the field of nursing. Florence Nightingale, being the most famous of all, is known as “the angel of mercy”. She is known to have brought in the importance of the field of nursing and its effect on the care of the ill and disabled. But this is not about her, it is about Anna Caroline Maxwell. For her contributions to the field of nursing in the United States, she is known to be fondly referred to as the “American Florence Nightingale” (Hankin, E., n.d.). She is credited for the significance, importance and establishing a respected field of nursing in the United States of America.

The ability to care for the underprivileged is a choice some nurses may not embrace due to the challenges involved. A NP working in rural, low socioeconomic areas requires a service with selflessness. Florence Nightingale served the lives of countless soldiers when she transformed battlefield nursing care during the Crimean war. In 1842, she developed public health nursing for the sick and poor at home and created a health care reform (Monteiro, 1985).

One of the most unrevealed facts about Florence nightingale is that she encountered several obstacles during her nursing career. The medical profession was not supportive of her holistic approach to healing. During the Crimean war, many soldiers were dying of preventable diseases due to poor sanitations and inhuman condition. She proposes way to improve the survival rate of the wounded soldiers. But she encountered resistance in the military. According to Simkin, J., (2014) many members of the military and doctors objected to her ideology to revitalize the medical setting for the hospitalized soldiers.

While it is important to be able to care for patients who are ill, Florence felt that is was even more important to be able to prevent the health problem from existing in the first place. As such, she is a pioneer of public health as well. Public health utilises an upstream approach where the main goal is preventing the health problem from even existing. It has increased in popularity as its long term approach saves both money and resources that the healthcare system utilises. The focus of disease prevention as well as health promotion were a primary goal for Florence Nightingale and those she worked with. Modern nurses places an even greater emphasis on public health than in previous eras due to today’s population and health needs. Florence Nightingale pioneered a new methodology of nursing which continues to have impact today (McDonald, 2010).

Florence Nightingale was born in 1820 to a wealthy, aristocratic, Victorian England family. She was given the education and proper upbringing that women of this period were accustomed. At 30 years of age she left her family to attend a nursing training program in Germany; this was against the wishes of her established family. (Black,2014) How did this proper British woman go on to revolutionize nursing; how did “The Lady with the Lamp” become the mother of American nursing; why should she still be studied in nursing education in 2016?

Florence nightingale was the chief figure in charge of the reformation of modern nursing. Though with a social standing to uphold, She devoted both her personal life and her professional life to better the care of patients and nursing. She is widely distinguished for her work in the Crimean war and for Trailblazing the path towards better medical practices. Florence Nightengale took a stand against unjust and outdated medical practices. She Established new methods on how hospitals are run. With these new methods, She was able to almost eliminate the death toll from hospital born illnesses and increase patient care.

The up rise of modern nursing started in Europe during the War, but was changed drastically by Florence Nightingale. During this time period is was crucial for the nurses to be well prepared and proactive to help save injured and wounded soldiers. Her role as well as many nurses was too help, but she did much more than that. Nightingale “received aid from the British government” (The History of Nursing) to assist the battlefields and hospitals with better hygiene. In a short time period, Nightingale reduced “the death rate of wounded soldiers from 427 per 1,000 to 22 per 1,000 in a six-month period” (Sarkis & Connors, 1986, p. 121). Her efforts during the Crimean War, saved many lives due to better hygiene within the area. She continued on to enhance proper sanitary conditions to better the patients’ safety and well-being in the hospital setting. These enhancements that Nightingale succeeded throughout her life time, not only changed the way nursing was back during the War time, but also carried on to how the nursing profession shaped to how it is current day.

Known as the Lady with the Lamp, Florence Nightingale is one of the most well-known and admired pioneers of the health care reform. Defying everyone’s expectations, she gained an admirable reputation and recognition as an advocate for public health by organizing and revolutionized the role of nurses. Nightingale’s views of the nurse’s role also set the foundation of what became the guidelines of how medical attention is given today (Bornstein 42).

It is generally assumed that Florence Nightingale is the mother of modern nursing. She rebelled against cultural norms at the time, and chose to live out her dream and become a nurse, in times where nursing was a career that was frowned upon during her lifetime 1820-1910 (Dominiczak, 2014, p. 284). Nightingale’s crowning moment came during the Crimean War in Turkey, where she was head nurse of the injured soldiers nursing unit (Lippincott & Wilkins, 1940, p. 573). It was here that Nightingale found that medical staff at the Selimiye Barracks were not only overworked but their patients were suffering due to the poor level of medical care. Not only was there a diminutive supply of medicine so infections were very common, but because there was poor sanitation and ventilation, the barracks suffered a tremendous hygiene problem. Nightingale’s intuition that soldiers were dying due to poor hygiene proved to be correct; more soldiers were dying from secondary infections than they were from battle wounds. When Nightingale made a request of her government to deliver a solution to the fatal environment, the British government commissioned for a pre-assembled building, designed as a hospital, to save the lives of their soldiers. This pre-built hospital resulted in a reduced death rate of 2% from the original rate of 42% (Dominiczak, 2014, p. 284). In addition to this life-saving change, Nightingale also instigated practices such as

Military nurses may be a part of any branch of the armed forces (1). Military nurses have the option to work in a variety of fields. The military has a variety of jobs for individuals to specialize in (1). There are a number of fields nurses can choose to specialize in. (1). A nurse in the military can provide care for family members of soldiers, or provide direct care to those soldiers who are injured during battle. (1). However, there are some who hold positions in education and

Florence Nightingale is extensively recognized inside and outside of the nursing profession as its founder. Many nursing traditions have their basis in Nightingale’s beliefs and her experiences as an extremely well educated, brilliant, wealthy, and privileged woman. Her dream for nursing was that it would be a honorable calling for women. Nevertheless, Nightingale left a timeless legacy of commitment to a profession that would serve humanity-and its practitioners-well (Haylock 3).

Nightingale was history’s first and most effective advocate for the healthcare rights of soldiers and veterans; and of course she was the guiding light for the first professional school of nursing. Her book Notes on Nursing was the first manifesto for patient-centered care, and her book Notes on Hospitals influenced hospital design well into this

Florence Nightingale has long been considered the mother of modern nursing. Despite the social barriers placed before women during the 1800s, something in Florence’s character allowed her to rise that few could have foreseen. Many influential figures in the past have pondered on the idea of ‘greatness.’ As Thomas Carlyle once stated, “The history of the world is but the biography of great men.” Clearly, Carlyle’s thought was narrow-minded, as the biography of Florence Nightingale shows that the history of the world also encompasses the formation of great women. Connecting some of the pivotal points in the life of this great woman will lend a fuller picture to our own history, as well as our own formation.