Florence Nightingale : The Lady With The Lamp

Nightingale, F. (1860).Notes on nursing: what it is and what it is not. New York:D.Appleton And Company.

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.

Florence Nightingale is considered to be one of the most influential theorist in nursing history. Her ground breaking evidence based practices have lead the way in patient care. This paper will discuss her professional experience, environmental theory, philosophies and her extraordinary impact in the healthcare world.

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.

The incidence which is mostly remembered in reference to the services of Florence Nightingale is the leadership of Florence Nightingale after the war, after her death her biographers called her “lady with the lamp”. The readings on Florence Nightingale will depict that she was a great social activist. She was continuously involved in the services to help and nurture mankind. She possessed a heart of an angel. Nightingales activities were related to her belief that one should try to help humanity in order to be near to the God. She really loved her God and all her writings were related to this topic. As stated by Nightingale "It is not, God will not punish, we shall therefore not surely die. It is, God loves us, and therefore why will we die? One says that God is careless, the other that He is loving." In an unpublished sermon she insisted on God's "real personal interest in our welfare," not just His "mercy generally." It was hard to believe this, she acknowledged, "But if this belief once takes possession of our hearts, then are we redeemed indeed."

When one hears the name, Florence Nightingale, the word nurse is instantly paired with it because of her contributions to nursing. Florence Nightingale became a national heroine after nursing the British troops at Scutari in the Crimean War during 1854-56 and became a pioneer for nursing using sanitary and administrative techniques. According to editor, Lynn McDonald, in Florence Nightingale- An Introduction to Her Life and Family: Collected Works of Florence Nightingale, Vol. 1, “Nightingale’s work on the foundation of nursing was a life-long preoccupation, but it was a part of a broader concern to reform public healthcare, prevent disease, and promote health” (84). However, many historians believe her ignorance of sanitation caused the death toll at Scutari to rise.

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

I will be summarizing Notes on Nursing: What It Is and What It Is Not by Florence Nightingale. Notes on Nursing: What It Is and What It Is Not was first published in 1860 with the last edition being published in 1969 (Adams-Wending, 2010). Nightingale’s theory addresses the importance of providing an environment that is conducive to the healing process for patients (Nightingale, 1860). Nightingale’s theory of the environment was based off the idea that disease was caused by smell of decomposing matter (Adams-Wending, 2010). The theory is broken down into thirteen “canons” of nursing (Nightingale, 1860). The thirteen topics within this theory are: ventilation and warming, health of houses, petty management, noise, variety, taking food, what food?, bed and bedding, cleanliness of rooms and walls, personal cleanliness, chattering of hope and advices, and observations of the sick. Nightingale (1860) states that ventilation is to make the air the patient breaths as fresh as the air outside. This also goes into detail of removing chamber pots

Cherry and Jacob state that Nightingale “introduced principles of asepsis and infection control, a system for transcribing physician’s orders, and a procedure to maintain patient records” (Cherry & Jacob, 2014, p. 8). Florence Nightingale also established the first nursing school in 1860 at the St. Thomas’ Hospital of London (Cherry & Jacob, 2014). Not only is Nightingale the founder of professional nursing, she is also recognized for contributing to nursing research, involvement in political activism, and for her establishment to provide formal nursing education to pursing nurses (Cherry & Jacob, 2014).

The earliest nurses never attended nursing school; they were often nuns or other women who provided care for the sick, poor, or homeless without family support (The history of Nursing, 2017). During the 18th and 19th centuries, the nursing profession expanded to include care of soldiers during many prominent wars (The History of Nursing, 2017). Florence Nightingale was a nurse during the Crimean War. The conditions she found soldiers in were deplorable. At this time she found that keeping these soldiers clean would lead to healing. She also began tending to them at all hours of the day. Upon her return to England, she wrote a report on her findings that helped reform health care. Years later, she started the Nightingale School for Nurses. After this several nursing schools began in the United States and were all founded on Nightingale’s ideas. The Civil War gave enormous impetus to the building of hospitals and to the development of nursing as a credentialed profession (Weathorford, 2010). One of the pioneers during this time was Clara Barton. By serving during the war she understood the need for clothing, food and shelter. She developed The Red Cross to be a program to aid those affected by

Artillery shells shocked the air with insomnia-causing explosions. Bullets flew through soldiers’ bodies within the blink of an eye. The screams of agony came from thousands inside military medic camps, with many screams ending swiftly but painfully. The Crimean war took its toll on soldiers from states including the Ottoman Empire, Russian Empire, and even the United Kingdom. Many soldiers died due to disease and lack of good medical care during battles. During this time period, many women were expected to maintain their house and take care of their children, rather than become a nurse or go into higher-level education. It was looked-down-upon for women to nurse on the battlefield as most women on the battlefield were seen as prostitutes.

On the front lines of battle in 1854, she did not combat the enemies of Britain, but instead an adversary of even more titanic strength. She opposed the diseases and anguishes of the war which held the soldiers captive in infirm, powerless bodies. With incredible boldness, she championed the right of the soldiers to breathe once more untroubled by afflictions. Because of her pursuit to relieve human suffering, she rescued a countless number of individuals through her reforms of preventive sanitation and effective treatments in civilian and military hospitals. Florence Nightingale was a woman of compassion and courage whose commitment always transcended self, and through her legacy reclaimed the numerous lives both in her present day and in

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.

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.

Theory and practice are said to go hand in hand. Theory is shaped based on practice and insight, while it also gives shape and foundation to practice. Florence Nightingale is acknowledged as the founder of modern nursing and a theorist. She believed in the patient’s capacity for self-healing which is reinforced by the nurse’s ability to create an environment conducive to health (Smith &Parker, 2015, p. 50). Her philosophy of nursing is that one should put the patient in the best position for nature to act on him or her. This paper will identify the five essential components of her theory to draw out an appropriate plan of care for Mrs. Adams in the case study. In addition, discuss the applicability of Nightingale’s