WordPress.com



Florence Nightingale: Where did modern nursing first begin?May 12 marks 200 years since the birth of Florence Nightingale.It's a name you might have come across during your history lessons at school, or perhaps you've seen her name crop up?in the news recently. Not only is Florence an important woman in history, her amazing work is still celebrated to this day.The medical profession is vital as doctors, nurses and other medical staff help us to all stay healthy and fit, and pioneers like Florence remind us why services like?the NHS are so important.So where did it all begin for the nursing trailblazer? Read on to find out more!A privileged upbringingFlorence Nightingale was born on 12 May 1820. She was named after the Italian city she was born in, but grew up in England and came from a well-off family. Her father, who was called William, was a wealthy landowner. Like other girls with backgrounds similar to her own, Florence was expected to marry into a suitable family and have children when she reached adulthood, but she had other plans. Florence was interested in education and learning from a very young age and was inspired to do more with her life.The nursing journey beginsFlorence wanted to help people and felt God was calling her to become a nurse, an idea that her parents weren't willing to support at first. Hospitals during the Victorian era were in pretty awful condition and nurses at the time weren't trained. However, Florence was desperate to fulfil her dream of becoming a nurse and she paid lots of visits to hospitals and health facilities to find out more. Her parents eventually allowed her to spend some time at a German school for nurses and female teachers.War breaks outFlorence was offered a job as a superintendent at a hospital for women in August 1853 after she'd returned to the UK. The Crimean War broke out shortly after, and Florence was asked to bring together a team of 38 nurses who would go to support soldiers at a military hospital in Turkey. This was the first time women were allowed to serve in the army. The male doctors at the hospital weren't very happy as they didn't like the idea of having women around. However, they eventually had no other choice but to give in as they desperately needed the help and they let Florence's team get on with their work.Florence famously became known as the 'Lady with the Lamp' after a picture of her holding a lamp at night while tending to patients was published in a national newspaper. In fact, she ended up becoming a bit of a celebrity! Despite the efforts of Florence and her team, lots of soldiers lost their lives during the Crimean War. More than 4,000 died during the nurse's first four months in Turkey.Things take a turn for the betterAt first, Florence thought the high death toll was down to injured soldiers not getting the nutrition they needed. The British government sent out a Sanitary Commission to investigate what was happening at the hospital Florence was working at in addition to others in Scutari. It was soon discovered that the hospital had been built on a sewer and soldiers had been drinking contaminated water. The system was improved and the hospital flushed out to make it cleaner. This eventually led to a fall in the death toll.New discoveriesAfter the Crimean War ended in 1856, Florence was desperate to find out what exactly had caused so many deaths. With Queen Victoria's support, Florence helped set up a Royal Commission into the health of the army. She worked alongside leading statisticians and together, they tried to make sense of the data on the deaths of soldiers during the war. The results were far from expected - 16,000 of the 18,000 deaths weren't because of war wounds as Florence had first thought, but it was actually preventable diseases that were the culprit! She created a diagram to present her findings. This showed that the number of deaths had fallen by an astonishing 99% in a year after sanitary conditions at the military hospitals in Scutari were improved. Florence later became the first female to be inducted into the Royal Statistical Society.Leaving a legacyIn 1859, Florence published a book called Notes on Nursing which helped educate the poor on how they could best care for their sick relatives and neighbours. She later used a large sum of money Queen Victoria had gifted her to found the Nightingale School of Nursing which was the first facility of its kind. Those who trained at her school were sent to hospitals all over the UK and helped spread Florence's new ideas. Florence became the first woman to be awarded the Order of Merit for her service when she was 87. She died at the age of 90. ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download