These words were written by Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, exactly 150 years ago. They are almost hauntingly poetic to read in 2020, as we experience a global health crisis due to the spread of COVID-19, a new and highly infectious strain of the Coronavirus. We need to support our healthcare workers more than ever.
Last week NHS England built a temporary hospital in London’s ExCel centre with a capacity of 4,000 patients in just under a week. They named it ‘NHS Nightingale’ to acknowledge Florence Nightingale’s legacy as a revolutionary of 19th Century nursing.
To thank our healthcare workers during this global pandemic and as part of our recognition of 2020: The Year of the Nurse and Midwife, we are going to give you a brief history lesson on Florence Nightingale and her role in establishing modern nursing practices that we still use today. To find out more about our plans for the Year of the Nurse and Midwife during the Coronavirus pandemic please read to the end of the blog.
Fig 1. The New NHS Nightingale Hospital, ExCel Centre, London.
Florence Nightingale was born in 1820 in Florence, Italy. Her upper-middle class family moved back to England in 1821, where she had an extensive home education and grew a passion for mathematics and science. Against her parents’ wishes, she received further tuition in statistics before deciding that nursing was her 'calling from God’. At this point in time, nursing was seen as lower-class work, and therefore unsuitable for Florence. Nevertheless, she persevered and travelled around Europe, visiting hospitals and studying practices.
Florence rose to prominence in the Crimean War (1853-1856). Newspaper reports told stories of the horrific state of British military hospitals that lacked sanitation and basic medical supplies. As a response, Florence was appointed to the military hospital in Scutari, Turkey with 38 other nurses under her management. This was the first time women had been allowed to officially serve in the army. On her arrival, she was appalled at the filthiness of the Barrack Hospital. The nurses set to work cleaning the hospital, fed and clothed the soldiers. Under her supervision, the death rate in the army hospital significantly reduced. Her work in Crimea earned her the nickname ‘The Lady with the Lamp’ after her success stories were popularised in British newspapers back home.
In 1856 Florence returned home as a war heroine - but she did not stop there. She set about improving the sanitation of the hospitals in England by introducing hygiene practices that we take for granted today, such as handwashing, keeping rooms well ventilated, cleaning surfaces and changing bed linen. She even imposed a secluded 'working-from-home' policy on herself after suffering from a flu-like infection in 1857 to reduce contagion to other members of her household. As a trained statistician, Florence delivered her data reports in a revolutionary way; using rose diagrams and pie charts which were easy to read and republish.
Significantly, in 1855 the Nightingale Fund was established for the training of future nurses using the methods Florence pioneered. The income generated was used to build her nursing school at St Thomas’ Hospital in London. It was the first secular nursing school in the world. As an advocate for social form, she set about improving the healthcare for British society, better hunger relief in India and more employment opportunities for women.
Florence died in 1910, leaving behind a legacy that has shaped modern nursing and changed British society. She became the first woman to be awarded the Order of Merit and her book, Notes on Nursing, became a classic guide on how to care for the sick for many households.
References
Fig 1. GETTY Images, March 2020. NHS Nightingale Hospital. [Photograph]. GETTY Images. Available on: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-52092253 [accessed 03.04.2020].
Florence Nightingale on Public Health Care by
Notes on Nursing by
Some of these articles may require a University of Bolton Log-in and password.
How Florence Nightingale spent her time in self-isolation.
Florence Nightingale: Saving lives with statistics.
Florence Nightingale – never more relevant than today.
Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole on nursing and health care.
Following in Florence Nightingale's influential footsteps.
Working in the early days of the NHS.
Rediscovering a history of nursing management: From Nightingale to the modern matron.
At the University of Bolton Library, we planned to celebrate 2020 as the Year of the Nurse and Midwife in honour of Florence Nightingale’s 200th birthday and use this as an opportunity to thank our current nurses and midwives for their hard work. Unfortunately, on 23rd March NHS England confirmed that they are postponing all their celebrations indefinitely so that they 'can prioritise dealing with coronavirus’. In following this guidance, we are sorry to say that we are also postponing our plans.
Please continue to support your NHS and healthcare workers during this time.
You can donate to the Bolton NHS Foundation Trust here.
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