Introduction
Nursing has always contributed to the development and improvement of medicine, as some distinguished professionals have brought new and valuable ideas to the field. One such nurse was Florence Nightingale, who devoted herself to the study of war wounds and sacrifice. As a result of her extended analysis of military brutality, the nurse developed her statistics system, which later became widely used in hospitals.
Nightingale’s Biography
First of all, it is necessary to begin with an analysis of the nurse herself and her biography. Florence Nightingale was born in 1820 and dedicated herself to nursing. Later, during the Crimean War, Florence began to develop the idea of incorporating social statistics into the medical service because she believed it could make it much easier for doctors to research casualties and injuries. She propagandized that the business of nurses is to save the wounded not only physically but also spiritually, for example, to care for their leisure time, organize reading rooms, and help establish correspondence with relatives (Nightingale, 2020). Florence Nightingale defined nursing as the maintenance of a person in such a condition that disease does not occur (Nightingale, 2020). In contrast, the care of the sick is helping the sick live a fuller and more satisfying life. Nightingale expressed a firm conviction that nursing as a profession is essentially distinct from the medical work and requires exceptional knowledge specific from that of physicians (Nightingale, 2020). In addition, Nightingale was a direct participant in the war, where she showed her professionalism and fearlessness.
Nightingale’s Ideas and Innovations
As a result of her wartime activities, the nurse was inspired by the study of war sacrifice to show the inhumanity of war. Nightingale introduced pie charts to count deaths in the Crimean War and later distributed them to politicians (Kim & Mallory & Valerio, 2020). Above all, this idea was to unify the statistics collected by hospitals, such as the number of patients admitted to hospitals, the number who were cured, who were discharged as incurable, and the average time spent in the hospital (Kim & Mallory & Valerio, 2020). The effectiveness of this approach led to health care reform, the primary purpose of which was to actively introduce charts and statistics into medicine to obtain more reliable data. In addition to the idea of statistical data, Nightingale ensured that hospitals were equipped with ventilation and sanitation systems and that hospital staff were mandatorily trained.
The Impact of Florence Nightingale’s Activity
Nightingale’s ideas gained widespread popularity in the nursing profession. Firstly, the reforms made it easier for nurses to gather and process the information needed to deal with actual illnesses and injuries (McDonald & PhD & LLD, 2017). Secondly, Nightingale’s enthusiasm and steadfastness encouraged many professionals to work for an idea rather than for profit, as seen in the nurse’s authority in her professional environment and the legends that began to build around her personality (McDonald & PhD & LLD, 2017). In the end, one of the psychological syndromes was named after the heroine, the essence of which is the emergence of the doctor’s love for the patient as a result of prolonged treatment (McDonald & PhD & LLD, 2017). Thus, Florence Nightingale’s contribution to nursing has been invaluable.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Nightingale is not only a professional but also a professional reformer. The nurse’s developments have made it easier and better to collect information about victims and illnesses, which is one of the core responsibilities of nurses. Finally, Nightingale set a high bar of professionalism for physicians that increased the number of quality specialists in nursing. Combining these factors allows us to judge Nightingale as one of the most significant figures for medicine and nursing history.
References
Nightingale, F. (2020). Florence Nightingale to her nurses: A selection from Miss Nightingale’s addresses to probationers and nurses of the Nightingale school at St. Thomas’s hospital. Library of Alexandria.
McDonald, L., PhD, LLD (Hon). (2017). Florence Nightingale, Nursing, and health care today. Springer Publishing Company.
Kim. M., Mallory, C., Valerio, T. (2020). Statistics for evidence-based practice in nursing. Jones & Barlett Learning.