Preview

Florence Nightingale

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2380 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale: The Founder of Modern Nursing

Abstract

Florence Nightingale believed that the nursing profession was “God’s calling” for her. Regardless, of the reputation that nurses had. Hospitals were dirty, smelly, overcrowded places that were full of diseases. Her focus was on the patients ' health. She realized that once the patients were clean and genuinely cared for, their health improved. She made sure that the hospitals were clean. In which helped diseases from spreading to others. Florence had a great impact during the Crimean War. She and her nurses saved thousands of soldiers. She also gained the title “The Lady with the Lamp” for her late-night rounds. Florence was the first nursing theorist. One of her theories was the environmental theory which incorporated the restoration of the usual health status of the nurse’s clients into the delivery of health care. It is still practiced today. External factors surrounding patients affected their biologic, physiologic, and developmental process. She has contributed many aspects. Among them is her role in founding the modern nursing profession.

Florence Nightingale

Introduction

Florence Nightingale was born on May 12, 1820 in Florence, Italy. She was the daughter of wealthy parents from England. She excelled in her studies. She loved to read, write, and especially math. As Florence got older she noticed she was not happy with her lifestyle. Women of her class were supposed to get married, have children, and be among other wealthy families. Florence was only seventeen years old when she decided to go into nursing. She considered it as a “calling from God” (Hill & Howlett, 2001). Nurses in England had a reputation for being drunken, untrained and uneducated. She begged for her parents to allow her to receive nurses’ training. They were angry towards her decision. However, this did not prevent Florence from pursuing her dream.

Overview of the theorist



References: Bloy, M. (2010) Florence Nightingale (1820-1910). Retrieved June 30, 2010, from Website:http:///www.victorianweb.org/history/crimea/florrie.html Hill, S & Howlett, H. (2001) Success in Practical/Vocational Nursing (4th ed). (pp. 7-10). Philadelphia: Saunders Ingalls, K & Tourville, C. (2003). The Living Tree of Nursing Theories. Nursing Forum, 38 (3), 21-30, 36. Retrieved July 1, 2010, from Health Module. (Document ID:476634011). Nightingale, F. (2008). New World Encyclopedia. Retrieved June 30, 2010, from Website:http:///www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Florence_Nightingale Nightingale, F. (1969). Notes on Nursing: what it is and what it is not. (pp.24, 104). New York: Dover Publications The Florence Nightingale Legacy (n.d). Retrieved June 30, 2010, from Website:http:///www.fnif.org/nightingale.htm Weber, B. (2003). Florence Nightingale’s basic tenets: Would she recognize nursing today? Plastic Surgical Nursing. 23 (2), 44. Retrieved July 1, 2010, from Health Module. (Document ID: 410231551).

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Nursing was for the undesirables. “Ill individuals were taken care of by “sinners, saints, or mothers” “(lc.gcumedia.com, 2013). Florence Nightingale was born in a wealthy English family and had educational opportunities; however she would still often find herself wanting to help the poor. Soon after completion of nursing school she travelled to the Crimea War. There she suggested there were “five essential components to an optimal healing environment; pure air, pure water, efficient drainage, cleanliness and light” (Kelly, 2012, p. 2397). With those changes alone the mortality rate decreased and the meaning of nursing was forever changed into what we know today.…

    • 430 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the mid of 19th century Florence Nightingale started her mission to improve health care and create nursing as a profession. From her own experience and observations during Crimean War she became urgent to decrease high at this time mortality rate. As McDonald (2001) noted “Nightingale returned from the Crimean War with a conviction that the desperate loss of life she witnessed should never occur again” (p.68).…

    • 378 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Florence Nightingale was a young and talented woman. Who, she had to overcome to outstand her wishes to become a nurse, at least from the family. She had become the first woman for the nursing field. During the Victorian Era one was obligated to marry within their social class and obtain a job within their given range. By the age of 16 that was when she realized that nursing is calling upon her name and stating that’s her duty to become one. As opposed to her family wishes she had decided to join as a nursing student in 1844, at the Lutheran Hospital of Pastor Fliedner in Kaiserswerth, Germany.During the Crimean war in the early 1850s, Nightingale had returned to London where she took a nursing job in a Middlesex hospital. During the late 1854, Nightingale received a letter from Secretary of War Sidney Herbert, asking her to organize a corps of nurses to tend to the sick and fallen soldiers in the Crimea.…

    • 302 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nursing is a job we would consider a very selfless job. It’s a job that requires you to be at your best at every moment because someone’s life or well-being is depending on you. Long shifts may get you tired, you may not have a lunch break because you are working non-stop but you could care less. All you care about is impacting the lives of others. You are constantly putting others before yourself. Well in this case Florence Nightingale was the person who did just that. Florence Nightingale was born on May 12 in the year of 1820 in Florence Italy. Her parents named her after the Italian cities in Italy. In her early teens Florence discovered that she wanted to become a nurse not just because she wanted to do it, but the simple fact that she had got a “calling from God” to do God’s work. Florence’s parents did not want her to pursue the career in being a nurse because they did not make as much during those days. But this didn’t stop her she continued to fulfill her dreams at the age of 17 and was determined not to get distracted for…

    • 711 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Florence Nightingale had a major impact on the development of medicine by changing the way nurses were viewed and creating higher sanitary standards for hospitals. Because of Florence and her observations, we do have high sanitary standards in hospitals; therefore we have decreased death rates today.…

    • 830 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Florence Nightingale advocated for nursing by creating standards of care and educating nurses to improve health care for patients. She collected information and used statistics while caring for patients to promote their health. Her analysis of patient care led to an improved patient environment, changing it from unsanitary to a more sanitary environment which promoted health and well-being (Selanders, 2012). Her leadership in the profession led to establishing her own school of nursing in England which in turn prompted schools in America. This leadership paved the way for nurses to become leaders in a respected profession (Selanders,…

    • 2984 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Best Essays

    Beck, D. M., (2010). Expanding our Nightingale Horizon: Seven recommendations for 21st Century Nursing Practice. Journal of Holistic Nursing, 28(4), 317-326.…

    • 1363 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Metaparadigms of Nursing

    • 1854 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Each professional discipline has a responsibility to identify concepts that provide a general description of the discipline. It is these concepts that comprise the profession’s metaparadigm (Fawcett, 1984). Much of the philosophy and theory of nursing stems from the work of Florence Nightingale. The diaries, letters, and books that she left behind containing her statements and beliefs have been fundamental to the development of the concepts comprising the nursing metaparadigm (Selanders, 2010). Fawcett’s (1984) stated there was a general consensus among scholars that the concepts of nursing were person, environment, health, and nursing.…

    • 1854 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Nursing Thoery Timeline

    • 1405 Words
    • 6 Pages

    References: Tourville, RN, BSN, C., and Ingalls, RN, MA, K. (2003, Jul-Sep). The Living Tree of Nursing Theories. Nursing Forum, 38(3), 21-30.…

    • 1405 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    This paper discusses a timeline of the development of nursing science history starting with Florence Nightingale to present times. Florence Nightingale will always be associated with nursing, regardless how the field of nursing changes. Significant historical events to include dates which have enhanced the field of nursing will be discussed. Over the past century, the field of nursing has been positively impacted by numerous theories. (Kendall, 2011). Florence Nightingale, worked to improve conditions of soldiers in the Crimean War…

    • 1102 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Week 2 Paper

    • 1817 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Nightingale, F. (1860).Notes on nursing: what it is and what it is not. New York:D.Appleton And Company.…

    • 1817 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Information Literacy

    • 587 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Nightingale F. Notes on nursing what it is and is not. London: Churchill Livingstone, 1946. (First published in 1859)…

    • 587 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    My Nursing Philosophy

    • 1319 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Nightingale, F. (1869). Notes on nursing: what it is and what it is not. New York: Dover Publications.…

    • 1319 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Florence Nightingale is known as the founder of modern nursing. She was born in 1820 in a wealthy family. At the young age of twenty-four, she was touched by God to help the sick and less fortunate. According to Nightingale the environment, the patient lives in can have a major impact on their health. She created a model which focuses on the following components that have been critical to nursing: Patient Health of houses, ventilation, and Warming, Light, Noise, Variety, Bed and Bedding, Cleanliness of Rooms and Walls, Personal, Cleanliness, Nutrition, Chattering, hopes, and advice.…

    • 1197 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    What was the short-term significance of Florence Nightingale in bringing about change in nursing practice in the 1860s.…

    • 2181 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics