Nightingale believed the main problems were diet, dirt, and drains—she brought food from England, cleaned up the kitchens, and set her nurses to cleaning up the hospital wards. A Sanitary Commission, sent by the British government, arrived to flush out the sewers and improve ventilation.
Florence Nightingale is usually viewed as the most prolific woman in nursing, a 19th
century pioneer of modern medical care. Her motivation for becoming a nurse was to
use her talents and skills to help soldiers suffering from the impact of war. Her
dedication and resourcefulness allowed her to lead reform in how hospitals were
managed at that time, with an emphasis on caring for patients rather than simply being
a place of confinement. This shift in methodology led to remarkable progress in
healthcare.
On 17 October 1820, Florence Nightingale was born in Florence, Italy, the second-born
of twelve children. Her father was an English aristocrat and diplomat who served in the
British embassy in Venice. Due to family financial issues, her mother moved the family
to London when Florence was 3 years old where most of her life took place. She
attended lower and upper schools for young ladies but did not excel academically. At
age 12 she began a career as a governess for children living near her family's summer
home at South Merewood, Kent. At age 19 she served as a governess in a large home on
Harley Street. While there she felt the urge to become a nurse when her father
became ill with pneumonia.
Seeing an opportunity to assist after the Crimean War started, Florence began nursing
soldiers at her family's London townhouse. The Army Medical Department allowed
Nightingale and other female nurses to go to the Crimea, but only if they had a medical
background. In 1854 Nightingale and 38 other female nurses arrived in Scutari, Turkey
where they were placed under the command of Dr. Alexander Sutherland and housed in
Barrack Hospital #2 along with several hundred sick and injured soldiers.
She thought miasma was the cause for disease, so she promoted hygiene. Her approach
lowered the death rate in the Scutari Hospital (Germany) from 42% to 2%. She did this
by having fresh air, more personal space and better nutrition.
She contracted typhus while in Turkey and nearly died herself, but her constitution and
recovery were remarkable. She was promoted to superintendent of army nursing on
April 15, 1856. She returned to England in 1856 and wrote a book called Notes on
Nursing: What It Is And What It Is Not, which was published in 1860. The book
emphasized sanitation, the importance of cleanliness, and the value of the well-trained
nurse in providing quality care for patients—a revolutionary idea at that time when
nursing was viewed as less important than medicine.
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