Florence Nightengale

19th Century Health Care Pioneer. Lorie Bronson, 2020

A one credit course entitled “Nursing History” was thought to be an easy subject, absent the demands of science and nursing classes, And that it was, However, it provided me a perspective necessary to understand the work and wisdom of those who paved the way of future health care workers.

One woman, Florence Nightingale, stood out like a colossus in the evolving nursing profession, Born into a distinguished English family, she experienced a life of relative luxury and accessibility to education not available to most women in the early 1800’s, Through her studies and varied life experiences she recognized that lingering illness and sudden death were facts of life for everyone in an era before modern medicine.

She became a social activist, an environmentalist, policy-maker, philanthropist and author, But foremost, she was a nurse.

At a young age, she became aware of and awakened to an inner “knowing” of God’s immediate presence, When she was thirty one years old she described this experience:

God has always led me of Himself. the first idea I can recollect when I was a child was a desire to nurse the sick, My day dreams were all of hospitals and I visited them whenever I could, I never communicated it to any one, it I would have been laughed at; but I thought God had called me to serve Him in that way.

Known as the “Lady with the Lamp”, she trained 38 nurses in order to tend wounded soldiers during the Crimean War in 1854, It was there that she saw thousands of soldiers die from infectious diseases rather than from their wounds, Due to deplorable and their filthy conditions in the medical facilities, she saw thousands of soldiers die from infectious diseases rather than their wounds, Appalled and moved by compassion, Nightingale initiated comprehensive practices of cleanliness and sanitary reform. Due to her efforts, within six months, hospital mortality rates fell from 42.7% to just 2.2%,

Nightingale’s reach was far broader than her simple nickname implies. Her lifetime passion to transform health care met with family opposition as well as constraints of 19th century society that considered nursing a job for poor women with bad manners and weak morals, She transformed nursing into a respectable profession that was grounded in science and education, Using money awarded her from the English government as well as her own resources, she established a hospital with a division called, “Nightingale Training School for Nurses.” Her book, Notes on Nursing; What It Is and What It Is Not, continues to inspire and form nursing students and professionals, v

Her skills and contributions to the care of the sick and suffering are many, She meticulously chronicled data and formulated a blueprint for running a healthcare system.

Her work is undeniably recognized in today’s CDC (Center for Disease Control) guidelines pertaining to the current Covid-19 pandemic. She is credited with being the first healthcare professional to use data to show that infection prevention improves health outcomes, She mandated that patients be distanced at least three feet apart, stressed the primary measure of hand-washing to enhance the safety of all, mandated sanitizing and disinfecting contaminated surfaces and provided improved ventilation for hospital rooms. These health care reforms are but a few of her lasting contributions still valued and practiced today.

Florence Nightingale was born on May 12, 1820, and lived to be ninety years old, Still today her lamp continues to guide health care workers as they bring light to those in the darkness of pain and suffering, Without a doubt, she would salute our heroic health care workers of today who, like her, with courage, perseverance, compassion and generosity have improved the lives of many.

It is fitting that as we celebrate the centennial of the 19th amendment giving women the right to vote, that we also mark the bicentennial of the birth of this visionary woman, Nightingale’s contributions, like the Women’s Suffragists, continue to inspire many today and have far reaching societal impact.

Lorie Bronson, retired R.N.,Pastoral Minister; Chairperson, Monroe Vicariate Peace and Justice Committee