Hand washing is the single most effective means of infection control known–Nightingale began urging it in 1860.

Nightingale worked to turn the terrible workhouse infirmaries into real hospitals, calling for the same quality of care available to the rich also for the poor.

Throughout her life, she worked with doctors, architects, engineers and statisticians to achieve great reforms. In 1871, she published a pioneering study of maternal mortality post-childbirth, Introductory Notes on Lying-in Institutions.

She did pioneering work on occupational health and safety as early as 1858.

Nightingale succeeded in improving the status of nurses, from being a “domestic” service occupation in the 1861 Census, to being grouped with “medicine” in 1901 In the army, nurses became “officers,” like doctors.

Doctors had university/medical qualifications.) The belief that Nightingale wanted nurses to be “subordinate to doctors” misses the point, for when her nursing school started, in 1860, women lacked even a high school education, let alone university.

“Army nurses,” before Nightingale’s time, were recruited from among the wives and widows of privates and non-commissioned officers (doctors were always officers), were paid less than cooks and laundresses, and reported to a sergeant.

Hospitals should hire cleaners, and nurses ensure that the job was done.

Nightingale consistently argued for good salaries and working conditions for nurses, holidays of at least a month per year decent pensions good living conditions during training and hospital design to save nurses’ energy for patient care.

Giving superintendents power to hire, discipline, etc., was to remove it from doctors, then 100% male when nurses were 100% female, and an unspoken measure to prevent sexual harassment of vulnerable women nurses.

Her vision for the profession included a career path, with increases in salary and responsibility, and made nursing a well-paying profession.

Nightingale wanted nursing to be an independent profession nurses would take medical instructions from doctors, but no doctor would hire, fire, discipline or promote a nurse, decisions for senior nurses.

So, here are some key points on her work and legacy: She wrote a lot! Not just her most famous book, Notes on Nursing published in 1860, the same year that her training school opened. While Nightingale was famous in her lifetime, and for a long time after it, she is little known today and often mis-represented. The Bicentenary of her birth (May 20, 1820) was celebrated in 2020, we hope not just for Nursing Week, but throughout the year, with a new look at her key ideas and the relevance today.

She died at age 90 and was offered a burial at Westminster Abbey, which her family declined.Nightingale was the major founder of the modern profession of nursing, and health care pioneer, who became famous for leading the first team of British women to nurse in war–the Crimean War of 1854-56. Her book “ Notes on Nursing” became the definitive text on her new methodologies. Thomas’ Hospital in Londonįlorence Nightingale returned home to England a heroine and a national figure. Her efforts to formalize nursing education led her to establish the first scientifically based nursing school-the Nightingale School of Nursing, at St. She revolutionized the nursing profession and trained nurses as they tended to fallen soldiers using techniques of triage, sanitation and organization. She spent many hours in the wards, and her night rounds giving personal care to the wounded established her image as the “Lady with the Lamp.” During the Crimean War, Florence is credited with saving many lives that would have otherwise died on the battlefield. Nightingale was put in charge of nursing British and allied soldiers in Turkey during the Crimean War. On May 12, 1820, Florence Nightingale, the pioneer of modern nursing was born into privileged English society.įrom the beginning of her life, Florence felt a calling for the nursing profession and this posed a scandal with her privileged family because nursing was considered a profession for the poor and ill-educated.

Who was florence nightingale