In honor of 2010 being the International Year of the Nurse, and May 12th being International Day of the Nurse, these next few articles will feature a look at the history of nursing, noteworthy pioneers and where the world’s 15 million nurses will take today’s present health care needs in the years to come.
Florence Nightingale has been acknowledged as the founder of modern nursing. Born in 1820, the younger of 2 sisters, she learned many subjects from her father, and excelled in mathematics. This mathematical aptitude would later help her develop statistical models that were widely used.
In that era in Britain women of her class in society did not have careers. Even though there was a Queen on the British throne no woman could vote, go to university or be a Member of Parliament among other restrictions. They were expected to marry and have children. After marriage she could not purchase, enter into a contract own or bequeath anything without her husband’s permission. Somehow Florence Nightingale did not see becoming a wife and mother exclusively as her life’s path. Although she was betrothed to at least one suitor she did not marry.
She adopted her social conscience from her mother and become interested in the plight of the poor, she also visited patients in hospitals. In 19th century Britain the only hospitals were run by religious orders. Nursing as such was not considered a profession where one needed to study or be smart. In fact, nurses were held in contempt as unskilled tramps. The exceptions were the convents where nuns had studies for women to become nurses or teachers. Florence Nightingale did meet two of these sisters in France who practiced nursing. In 1850 she took four months training at the Institute of Protestant Deaconesses who taught nurses and teachers for the poor. In 1853 she became the Superintendent for of the Hospital for Invalid Gentlewomen, an unpaid position.
During the Crimean War (1854-1856) the military’s neglect and indifference to the wounded soldiers led to an outcry in Britain, in part due to the fact that France’s military hospitals were well staffed and had trained nurses. A wounded French soldier had a better chance of survival. Florence Nightingale both was asked and volunteered to be set to the Crimean battlefront to attend to the soldiers. She went with 38 nurses from various orders and hospitals that she herself had selected. There they found that many more soldiers were dying from horribly unsanitary conditions than actual battle wounds. It has been reported that of the 20,000 British soldiers that died, only 3.000 died from battle injuries. The unhygienic conditions were due in large part to lack of basic supplies such as soap, towels, bandages, and containers for water. Soldiers and staff were dying from dysentery, typhus, and cholera. The mortality rate reached at times 40 percent or more. Finally the government was forced to improve the sanitary infrastructure of the hospitals. This led to further reforms of hospitals in Britain. Remember that the idea of contagious diseases and the link between the environment and disease was still just that, an idea that was not universally accepted.
Florence Nightingale applied most likely the first holistic approach to nursing by establishing a kitchen and laundry as well as improving the condition of the hospital for treatment. She made sure the soldiers’ families were looked after as well. Her official title was Superintendent; she was supposed to answer to the chief medical officer, but the conditions did not allow for collaborative decisions to be made. During her time there she was known as the Lady of the Lamp because she made her nightly rounds after dark to check on the patients.
She returned home with a chronic condition likely contracted from fever associated with the war. In 1855 funds were provided to start a training school for nurses called the Nursing School and Home for Nurses at St. Thomas Hospital. That school still exists today under the name The Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery (King’s College) London. Her book the Notes of Nursing was considered the basis for nursing curriculum. Other societies and institutions were also established to train nurses and its rise as a legitimate profession never looked back. Florence Nightingale was recognized with awards both in Britain and other countries.
Florence Nightingale was able to influence the government of her day no small feat considering that women were not even thought equal to men and had few rights. She was a prolific social commentator and writer in spite of her illness. She was competitive, driven, ambitious and intelligent and definitely saw her life’s work as improving society for the good of every citizen. She trained the pioneer of nursing in the United States, Linda Richards.
The most amazing and interesting of the observations still ring true today. She was able to foresee the path of health care in the future and the challenges it would need to overcome to make it true health care not just managing illness.
Even in the 1800s she recognized that because a profit could be made on people’s illnesses that health care could cease to be a social service. More importantly, she distinguished between ‘sick nursing’ attending to those already ill, and ‘health nursing’ preventing sickness by proactive measures. She believed that nurses had a vital role to play in keeping people healthy.
However, most importantly her legacy was to emphasize to nurses that they themselves must have some source of renewal for their own strength and they must care for themselves to be able to continue to care for others. Her own life is a testimony having lived 90 years working long hours and living the last decades of her life with a chronic illness. Her drive to make nursing s respectable profession, and her faith were what sustained her throughout her life.
The goal of the International Year of the Nurse is to recognize the commitment of the world’s nurses, including how they promote global health and how they contribute to the achievement of the UN Millennium Development Goals. The 8 goals are to:
- eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.
- achieve universal primary education.
- promote gender equality and empower women.
- reduce child mortality
- improve maternal health
- combat HIV AIDS and all communicable and non communicable disease
- ensure environmental sustainability
- develop a global partnership for development.
This quote of Florence Nightingale is fitting as a conclusion
In the future which I will not see because I am old, may a better way be opened! May the methods by which every infant, every human being will have the best chance at health…be learned and practiced. (1893)
www.nightingaledeclaration.net
www.victorianweb.org/history.crimea/florrie.html
No Place For Ladies: The Untold Story of Women in the Crimean War
H. Rappaport
Article © MyNursingUniforms.com / Young Lion Incorporated | Photo courtesy of Lawrence OP.
