Florence Nightingale's Lady With The Lamp

Florence Nightingale was the founder for nursing. Even though Nightingale’s family was against the career of nursing, she pursued her passion of learning to care for the ill. She strived to help the people sick and in need. Nightingale showed her caring heart when she helped cure soldiers during the Crimean War. She showed her compassion as she helped the wounded soldiers from the battlefield. Over time, Nightingale noticed the unsanitary conditions at the base hospital. Since the conditions were extremely unsanitary, Nightingale recorded the mortality rate of the soldiers. According to her data, the soldiers hospitalized were seven times more likely to pass away from unsanitary environments rather than injuries from the

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.

Florence Nightingale was an admirable leader because despite her gender she kept striving for what she wanted in a world ruled by men. She had determination, honesty, integrity, and respect from her peers. She fought diligently for women to receive an education and developed renowned ways of how to prevent and treat illnesses. She made improvements that benefited society, the population and as well as her peers. She was a leader that put others before herself and wanted equal success for all. She was committed to her mission and with that she showed that a nurse should have compassion. This relates to nursing being both an art and a science. She emphasized the need for empathy, as she believed that being empathetic could also help improve with recovery. Nightingale took initiative in the work she did and as a leader you need to take action and be proactive. An important contribution Nightingale made that has impacted our education and also improved the environment was her hadnwashing theory. She implemented hand hygiene and that helped prevent infection and illnesses. Florence Nightingale is an example of which nurses should follow. We must be leaders and take action. Nursing is not just a job, but it is a profession where you protect the rights of others and at the same time help people in their

In this paper the author provides a real life example of the application of applying Florence Nightingales environmental theory to a practice setting. In an article published in the RN Journals a staff nurse writes about her experience as a floor nurse on an oncology unit and how the surroundings were anything but pleasant. The color of the unit was dark; there was dirty carpeting that lined the unit. Families had nowhere but the hallways to grieve the loss of loved ones and the worrying environment was depressing. This nurse took it upon herself to bring her concerns to hospital administrators; she stepped out on a limb and became the patient family advocate with using the premise of the Florence

Florence Nightingale, born in 1820, revolutionized nursing as it is today. Throughout her time working with the wounded soldiers during the Crimean War, she noted that more soldiers were dying of infections than from wounds. Therefore, she worked to ensure sanitation as well as sufficient health and healing practices amongst her patients. From care to prevention, Nightingale’s practices were able to set the foundation for nurses today. Nightingale distinguished that a healthy environment is essential to one’s health and thus her tenets of ventilation, cleanliness, light, as well as nutrition set the bases of the City of Toronto’s tuberculosis program for the under-housed, homeless, and the correctional population.

Using her calculations she determined that an improvement in sanitary conditions would lead to a decrease in deaths. During her time this was the first time a woman had came up with such a productive theory to reduce the mortality rate. Florence was dedicated to improving the health and living conditions of the British army, the sanitary and administration of hospitals, and the way women were looked at if they wanted to pursue a profession in nursing.

If Nightingale were alive today, she would find it strange hospitals exist at all. She regarded them as belonging to a stage of "imperfect civilization", and envisaged their end by the year 2000. Florence would have understood the growth of the primary care movement. Having its roots in her own work, she would have been alarmed by the conditions of acute care evident in some hospitals today. High bed-occupancy rates, the poor hygiene, and the lack of space and of privacy .All of which go against the central tenets of her writings.

Florence Nightingale a systemic thinker and a “passionate statistician” (McDonald, 2001). According to McDonald (2001) Nightingales work in nursing and social reform was informed by religious faith or philosophy that favored a systemic approach. The goal of nursing has remained unchanged, since the time of Nightingales model, nursing is to provide a safe and caring environment that promotes patient health and well-being.

Florence Nightingale, or as soldiers on the battlefield would call her the “Lady with the Lamp”, was an inspirational women of the nineteenth century that had many aspirations and dreams concerning the care of others. Achieving these dreams by “facilitating the reparative processes of the body by manipulating the patient’s environment” (Potter & Perry 2009, p. 45); Nightingale laid the foundations of modern nursing and gave the country and many others a system that has stood the test and remains timeless. In this, Florence has become one of the most widely known nursing theorist to this day.

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

Nursing has evolved as a scientific discipline and is starting to emerge into professional status. One of the great leaders in nursing who helped this change take place was Florence Nightingale. Nightingale is considered as a pioneer in the nursing profession. She has contributed a lot in the field of nursing and her works are considered as assets, and will be remembered for many years.

Florence Nightingale is very well known for transforming nursing in general as we know it. She viewed nursing as an art and educated nurses the proper practice of professional nursing. Her theory of practice focused on environmental adaptation that served as the foundation for promoting health (Cherry & Jacob, 2014, p. 80). Nightingale believed that a patient’s health and healing process was greatly affected by their surrounding environment. She described that ventilation, warmth, noise, diet, light, chattering hopes, and cleanliness were the standards of her theory (Cherry & Jacob, 2014, p. 81). Nightingale stated, “keeping the

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.

Florence Nightingale developed the environmental model theory of nursing. Nery, (2015) states that Florence Nightingale’s environmental theory of nursing, “focus primarily on the environment, interpreted as all external conditions and influences that affect the life and development of an organism, that are able to prevent, suppress or contribute to disease and death.” The four metaparadigm concepts of this theory consist of person, environment, nursing, and health. Within this theory, the patient is being cared for by the nurse, has been influenced by the environment, and has reparative powers (“Nursing Theories, 2011). Nightingale’s theory does not have a clear definition of the person; however, it can be inferred that the person correlates “in relation to the environment and the impact of the environment on the person’s health status” (Butts & Rich, 2018). The highlight of Nightingale’s theory is the environment. Both the external and internal environment needs to be in sanitary conditions. The environment concept of this theory contains “physical, psychological, and social” factors (“Nursing Theories, 2011). The goal of the nurse is the control the patient’s environment to achieve ideal health for the patient. Nightingale’s theory did not define health; however, she stated that nature itself can heal ailments (Butts & Rich, 2018). Nightingale (1859) stated that health is ‘not only to be well, but able to use well every power we have to use it.”

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.