Florence Nightingale

Florence Nightingale

Introduction

Did you knew that Florence Nightingale was the first nurse. Did you ever stop for a minute to think that without the work of the scientist Florence Nightingale, you would have very good chances of dying if you had to undergo surgery due to the hospitals malpractice? That’s right folks! Florence Nightingale was one of many individuals that contributed very much with her job to the improvement of hospital best practices, especially related to the germ theory. Germ theory is the theory that proves germs cause diseases.

Background

Florence Nightingale was born in Florence in 1820 and died in London on 1910. She spent a great portion of her life working in hospitals. She lived in Italy until she was three years old. Then her family moved to England and she went to live in Derbyshire, North of England. When she became an adult she had to fight with her family to be able to follow her dream to become a nurse since she belonged to the upper classes of the British society and it was considered as being underneath her birthright to perform such type of tasks. She became extremely famous all over the world by leading the nursing support to the British campaign in the Crimean War that was being fought in southern Russia. Her main contribution to the effort of war was to bring down the mortality rate in the field hospitals from 42% to a minimum of 2%. She was able to introduce a change of mentalities with men being forced to accept the work and even the supervision of a woman. She was able to achieve this change of mentality because she had the support of very powerful friends like Lord Sydney Herbert and eventually even from Queen Victoria. Nonetheless, she was able to prove to herself and her supporters and critics that she could manage a hospital in a efficient and modern way introducing some practices in Hospital management that are still followed today.

Germ Theory

Florence Nightingale also contributed to the development of the germ theory by doing statistical research and changing medical practices that proved that enforcing sanitary regulations and special diets reduced the mortality rate in the hospitals. The principles of sanitary environment, personal hygiene and good diet were revolutionary in her time and constituted the basis of many of the good practices implement in our days. Florence Nightingale developed several methods to improve Hospital administration and developed statistics methods that allowed her to demonstrate straightforwardly the concepts she wanted to demonstrate to persons without any type of scientific formation like the members of the British parliament. She was able to demonstrate that the huge death rate in hospitals was directly related with overcrowding facilities, lack of air and light, lack of sanitation, poor kitchen conditions and unhealthy diets as well as dreadful laundry practices and facilities.

Other Interesting Info

Florence Nightingale worked with people from all over the world and from all social stratus. Some of her most famous acquaintances were: Elizabeth Blackwell who was the first women to receive a medical degree in USA. Her lifetime friend, Lord Sidney Herbert, Secretary of War. Pastor Theodor Fliedner, the leader of the Lutheran community of Kaiserwerth-am-Rhein. Florence Nightingale used her own money on many occasions to buy medical supplies to the hospitals where she was working. Florence Nightingale was named Florence because she was born in Italy in the city of Florence.

Conclusion

Florence Nightingale was a great woman that fought against biases and pre-concepts of her family and society to introduced hygiene and sanitary regulations and best practices in hospital administration. She became known as the inspiration for the many generations of nurses that have followed her pioneer example. She gave her full attention to all of her patients and never paid attention on their social status. She used her life to pursue her dream and she deserves to be respected for that great sacrifice and for all the changes she introduced that helped save countless of lives.