Matilda Coskery : The Oracle Of Nursing

Historically the role of the nurse has been as a patient advocate. Nurses’ have advanced from being seen as low cost labor to an autonomous practioner. Prior to Florence Nightingale the nurse was a member of a religious order or under the direction of the military. Florence Nightingale established the first nursing schools and was responsible for their own practice. In the early 1900’s nursing education was taken over by hospitals and the licensing of nurses began. In the 1990’s nurse practioners, (under the license of a physician), began prescribing

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

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.

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.

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.

The field of nursing is growing and changing rapidly, but this isn’t the first time in history that nursing has undergone radical transformations. In ancient times, the sick was usually cared for in temples and houses of worship. In the early Christian era, nursing duties were undertaken by certain women in the church, their services being extended to patients in their homes. Florence Nightingale, the well-educated daughter of wealthy British parents, defied social conventions, and the wishes of her parents, and decided to become a nurse. During Britain’s Crimean War, Nightingale sought to improve the mortality rate for soldiers. Later, Clara Barton helped found the Red Cross and Agnes Jones helped establish nursing schools in the

The present day originator of the nursing calling, Florence Nightingale perceived as ahead of schedule pioneer

Throughout history, society has considered women to be the natural caregivers of children, family, and community. Women were naturally thought of as nurses because the act was said to be an extension of their role in the home. They were called in to homes to help deliver babies or as wet nurses to breastfeed. In the 1800’s, women began taking care of soldiers. It was then that Florence Nightingale cared for soldiers in the Crimean War. During this time she revolutionized the role by setting standards of cleanliness and reducing infection. The legacy of nursing continues to be enriched by those who continue to follow the example of nursing pioneers. They refuse to be bound by others’ views

Florence Nightingale influenced modern day nursing by forming nursing theories concerning patient care. Nightingale formed her theories during the mid-late-nineteenth century. Nursing theories, “are guiding structures for reasoning and decision making about the person, as well as about the nursing action indicated.” (Alligood, 2010, p. 50). Nightingale is considered, “the founder of modern nursing” (MacQueen, 2007, p. 29) because she established the first nursing theories. Nightingale used a practice-discipline theory which was intended to, “bring order out of what otherwise might be chaos.” (Selanders, 2010, p. 3). Practice-based theories are based directly on the practice and outcome during patient care. Many of Nightingale’s theories involved the relationship between the patient and their environment. Nightingale’s

Nightingale, F. (1889) Notes on what nursing is and is not. Current Nursing E books.

Nursing today has become such an intricate world of healing, caring, knowledge and advocacy. All of these qualities are within every nurse. Nursing today is what it is due to many nursing theorist that came with a new set of knowledge and idea that helped shape nursing to what it is considered. One such theorist was nursing’s first environmental theorist, Florence Nightingale. According to Black and Chitty (2014), Florence Nightingale was born in 1820 to a prosperous English household. Her father educated her in many subjects such as: Latin, German, Greek, History and even Mathematics. Florence excelled in academics and wanted to further her studies by going to Kaiserswerth, Germany to study nursing. This was a huge deal in the era Nightingale lived in due to the fact that nursing was a working class job and Nightingale was from a wealthy family. According to MacQueen, (2007), nursing in that era was considered to be a job for the poor, involving untrained individuals and many were often accused of immoral behaviors. During the Crimean War, due to the horrendous war camp hospitals, Florence Nightingale was asked to gather nurses and head over to Scutari to help out at the British camp. With Nightingale’s charge, the camps conditions changed and the nurses brought cleanliness, comfort and sanitation to the patients. Nightingale made her mark as being known as the “Lady with the Lamp.” With the lessons learned during the Crimean War, Nightingale wrote an article describing in

The first influential thinker to describe nursing values and beliefs, Florence Nightingale based her writings on an assortment of influences through her own personal experiences. Born into a rather wealthy family on May 12th, 1820, Nightingale was the younger of two children (Nightingale, 2014.) Nightingale, extremely intelligent women who aggressively pursued nursing at age sixteen, even though her parents illicitly attempted to prohibit her from pursuing the ambitions of becoming a nurse (Nightingale, 2014.) At age sixteen, Nightingale wrote in her diary an interaction with God that “called her to His service” (Cook, 1913.) From this encounter with God, this author believes Nightingale’s life’s experiences first begin to grow. At a very young age grown into devotion towards nursing at a time when nursing was frowned upon, during the Victorian Era, it was a time in which Nightingales obligation was to marry a man of means (Nightingale, 2014.) During this time era nursing was viewed as “lowly menial labor by the upper social class” (Nightingale, 2014.) This author believes Nightingale was further determined to pursue her true calling in life despite her parents’ objections.

Nursing is an intellectual profession that has helped make strides in the field of medicine. Florence Nightingale is a great example of the brilliance of nurses. Due to her knowledge of statistics, and astute documentation, Nightingale was able to advance sanitary practices (Aravind & Chung, 2009). Essentially, Nightingale used evidence-based practice to advocate positive changes. If it were not for her keen observations, these errors might have continued for an indeterminate amount of time. Undoubtedly, Florence Nightingale reshaped the way the profession is viewed, and altered practices benefitting patients health and safety.

Selanders argued in this article the importance and commitment of Nightingale’s work associated with applicability in the nursing profession as well as the value of this historical knowledge which continues to justify teaching her legacy for generations. As time passes, nursing continues to apply in daily practice this value experience with so much meaningful to the 21st Century. Follows this historical Legacy is essential for every student nurse to be able to understand the past and their own nursing roots (2010).