Florence Nightingale Acute Health Care

Florence Nightingale was one of the most influential woman figures in British history. Florence Nightingale was born on May 12, 1820, at the Villa Colombia in Florence, Italy and died peacefully in her sleep on August 13, 1910. She is buried in the graveyard at St. Margaret Church in East Wellow, Hampshire. She was an upper-class girl from Florence, Italy who had dreams of becoming a nurse, but her family strongly opposed the idea. In 1844 she decided to enter the field of nursing and improved hospitals sanitation exponentially. Nightingale had a strong will and stark determination which helped her to become a great nurse.

Over the past two decades, EBP has expanded on Florence's theories. EBP constitutes the combination of clinical expertise, patient values, and research evidence when making decisions about patient care. In the 1990's, it was determined that just increasing knowledge was not sufficient for improving patient outcomes. To obtain better patient outcomes "new knowledge must be transformed into clinically useful forms, effectively implemented across the entire care team within a systems context,

A discussion in nursing theory must be preceded by a general definition of theory because in order to understand nursing theory one must have a general knowledge of what theory is. When the word theory is looked up in the Merriam-Webster dictionary there are six definitions that are provided:

Florence Nightingale paved the way for patient centered care in nursing. She realized that patients should be treated with dignity, respect and treatments that are in the best health interest of the patient. The Institute of Medicine defines patient-centered care (PCC) as “care that is respectful of and responsive to individual patient preferences, needs and values,” ensuring that patient values guide all clinical decisions. (Finkelstein, 2012) Being hospitalized can be a stressful time for many patients and their families. Nurses spend more time with patients than any other healthcare team member. In patient centered care, nurses provide the knowledge, resources, and support that each client needs to be involved in informed decision-making processes, assume important aspects of total self-care (if capable), and change behaviors to promote health and a better quality of life (Hood, 2015). The overall health outcome of patients revolves around patient centered care. Establishing a healthy nurse-patient relationship is key to patient centered care.

Florence Nightingale was an immense impact on nursing, who “became famous for her revolutionary work as a nurse during the Crimean War” (Kent 30). “She dedicated her life to improving conditions in hospitals, beginning in an army hospital during the Crimean War,” (3 Registered). Her actions were then used by “concerned individuals, rather than by professionally trained nurses” during the Civil War, (Registered 279). Many of Nightingale’s ideas were brought into modern times, but with the improvement of technology and licensed nurses. With the influence and patience of Florence Nightingale, nursing has evolved into an outstanding career.

That would be the only part about nursing I would not be too fond of. When asking the nurses questions something came up about when they are able to eat, and the answer was whenever they got the chance. In nursing you have to give it 100% or nothing at all. The patient always comes before yourself and it will always be that way.

Imagine a room in a hospital; you are lying on a bed, with linens since your admission, the room is very cold and dark at the same time, without proper ventilation. The bathroom you have does not have proper drainage; outside environment is as noisy as having a construction site as a neighbor. Health care providers come in just for the job and merely not care about you; their hands are not even clean and washed. Imagine these kinds of situation, what kind of environment are you having? Do you a place to heal or a place to die? Since the beginning of Modern Nursing, these scenes are commonly practiced and are usual in a way that it is considered a normal place to rest and be taken care of.

The nursing theory consists of four major concepts including person, health, environment, and nursing. According to the Fundamentals of Nursing, these four concepts “… give nurses a comprehensive perspective that allows you to identify and treat patient’s health care needs at all levels and in all health care settings.” (Potter & Perry, 2009, p. 40) Florence Nightingale’s theory was one of the first models for nursing. The focus of this theory was that nursing consists of caring through the environment and helping the patient overcome their symptoms and changes in function related to their prevailing illness. It also focuses on the manipulation on the environment for the potential benefit of the patient. Florence “… had always seen to the heart of things- that the real nurse must be a dedicated being- that

Nurses use the enhanced nutritional care by screening the patient using the “Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool” (MUST) to discover if patients are malnourished, deciding on what to do prevent the patient from malnutrition by monitoring and observing the patient when they eat, improving their preference of food to make sure patients have a balanced diet, and evaluating if patients are eating what they receive from nurses and if they are properly nourished. The RCN’s “Nutrition Now” campaign has made preventing malnutrition a goal by creating principles, such as being responsible for making changes to nutrition and hydration care plans, since “nutrition is essential for life, as vital as medication and other types of treatment” (Royal College of Nursing, 2016). Using the enhanced nutritional care principles, the Canadian Malnutrition Task Force created the Integrated Nutritional Pathway for Acute Care (INPAC) algorithm for discovering, treating and monitoring patients who are malnourished in acute

Maintenance of sufficient nutrition is an essential part of the treatment process for any patient admitted to the hospital. Early identification of patients who have a decreased nutrition status or have nutritional deficits helps to increase healing and overall improves the quality of life for a patient. Nutrition is more than just general food; it includes the overall amounts of

According to nursing-theory (2013), “Florence Nightingale is attributed with establishing the modern practice of nursing. She also contributed to the field with nursing theories still used today. One of her nursing theories is Environmental Theory, which incorporates the patients’ surrounding environment in his or her nursing care plan.” As a registered nurse, I will not take lightly to assess my clients’ nutrition, be aware of the client’s environment and how both of these things can greatly affect their well-being and recovery. It is my duty as a registered nurse to provide outstanding nursing

In this situation, I thought, the nursing staff was focussing on merely the absence of illness and disease without paying much attention to enhance the residents’ dining experience, which would have increased the level of wellbeing. According to me, objective state of health and the subjective experience of wellness are important in establishing an overall state of wellbeing. Throughout my experience, the feeding of clients seemed more like a ritual and less like social event, with lack of food preferences available to the client, and lack of verbal communication between the nurse/volunteer and the client. Since most clients had some form of chronic disability, more efforts should have been made to enhance the dining experience and make it more enjoyable, for instance by incorporating family recipes, asking for resident’s preference for seating, using outdoor areas if weather permits, playing music chosen by residents and making the table visually appealing by using colorful table cloths etc.

Florence Nightingale impacted society and hospital conditions greatly. She is known for all the heroic acts she’s done and how much she was needed in her days. Florence changed the views of many in “an era when middle-class women were expected to simply make a good marriage and raise a family”. Florence didn’t allow these views of average women to limit her to advance like any other man in her days. Florence Nightingale was born in May 12, 1820 in Florence, Italy.

In the field of medicine, many can be considered to be exemplary leaders as their efforts have combined to help save millions of lives over the years. Their contributions have continued to preserve the lives of many people together with animals and plants. Increased understanding of how our bodies work has led to breakthroughs in medicine led by these capable leaders. Some of these leaders in medicine are not inventors or innovators like most in the field but they have contributed much in evolving medical services. Their selfless actions have revolutionized medicine and as such have etched their names in the proverbial Hall of Fame of medicine. One such person is Florence Nightingale, who is famously known as the pioneer of modern nursing as we know it.

Throughout Notes on Nursing, Florence Nightingale expresses the importance of proper care to patients. Another factor of nursing that was effected by Nightingale is the professionalism of nursing and how nursing is not only a science, but an art. Nightingale states how numerous subjects in nursing should be improved upon. The specific chapters that show how Nightingale has improved nursing within Notes on Nursing were Light, Personal Cleanliness, Chattering Hopes and Advices, and Ventilation and Warming. In chapter 9, Light, Florence Nightingale emphasizes the impact of sunlight on the patient and how it improves their health. Personal cleanliness was reviewed in chapter 11. Nightingale explores the importance cleanliness has on a patient. Within chapter 12, Nightingale states how to properly advise the sick, as well as give hope to patients. In chapter 1, Ventilation and Warming, Nightingale states the need for pure air within a patient’s room. These chapters express the importance of properly taking care of patients. The focus of this paper is how it was applied during Nightingale’s time and how it is still relevant today in nursing practice. The chapters within Notes on Nursing have had a profound impact on the practice of nursing today.