Cheska Mae Edrozo
December 4, 2014
Period 3
SIGNIFICANT EVENTS
Although the origins of nursing predate the mid-19th century, the history of professional nursing traditionally begins with Florence Nightingale. Nightingale believed that well-educated women, using scientific principles and informed education about healthy lifestyles, could dramatically improve the care of sick patients. Moreover, she believed that nursing provided an ideal independent social freedom for women, who at that time had few other career options.
One of Nightingale’s significance in history was that she was a great prolific writer, authoring texts, journals, reports and more than 200 personal letters to accomplish her goals. It emphasizes her focus on the environmental aspects of nursing pure air, light, cleanliness and pure water. Nightingale was a visionary who ...view middle of the document...
She believed and began proving she could save more patients from death by caring for their basic needs keeping them warm, clean, and rested.
Nightingale was appointed Superintendent of Nurses at the Institution for the Care of Sick Gentlewomen in Distressed Circumstances in London. She agreed to take the position only on the condition that the institution begins accepting patients of all religions, not just members of the Church of England. At the facility, Florence was able to demonstrate her administrative and nursing skills, cutting the cost of patient care while improving the standard of care. She did not receive pay for this position and was responsible for her own express.
Florence was known for providing the kind of personal care, like writing letters home for soldiers that comforted them and improved their psychological health. Her group of nurses transformed the hospital into a healthy environment within six months, and as a result, the death rate of patients fell from 40 to 2 percent. Upon her return from the Crimean War, she devoted the next few years the Royal Commission investigating health in the British Army. Nightingale’s statistical data and analysis strongly influenced the commission’s findings, which resulted in great public health advances in the British Army. It was her discussions with Queen Victoria on the conditions of the camp hospitals that sparked the commission’s formation.
Through her work and her school, Florence Nightingale is responsible for elevating the profession of nursing to an honorable status. She wrote about 200 books, pamphlets and reports on hospital, sanitation, and other health related issues. Throughout her life, Florence provided advice on a variety of health care issues to associates all over the globe. Though ill and bedridden for much of her later life, Nightingale managed to continue her great work through correspondence.
