Beliefs Of Florence Nightingale On Nursing Essay
Beliefs Of Florence Nightingale On Nursing Essay
The major purpose of writing this book was to provide routine sanitary knowledge or the knowledge of nursing which is, in other words, is the methodology of creating the constitution in such a state which will have diseases or a state which will catalyze the process of recovery from a disease. This knowledge is being conveyed through this book as it was recognized as a knowledge that everyone should have. The role of nursing in catalyzing the process of natural healing is emphasized through the book. This book in totality aims at providing reasonability to the theories of nursing.
A disease or suffering is a reparative process instituted by nature. Nursing is ought to assist this reparative process. If a patient is cold, if a patient is feverish, if a patient is faint, if he is sick after taking food, if he has a bed-sore, it is generally the fault not of the disease, but of the nursing (Nightingale F,1860). Nursing is not mere administration of medicines but is ought to ensure the proper use of natural healers like fresh air, warmth, quietness, punctuality, cleanliness, dietary requirements or a combination of these.
The basic laws of health and nursing in the case of the well and the sick are in reality the same. The breaking of the rules would produce a lesser dynamic consequence in the case of the healthy but the consequence would be severe in the case of the sick.
One basic principle I am trying to put forward regarding nursing through this book is that the first rule of nursing is to keep the air within the nursing environment as fresh as that of the outside environment. Beliefs Of Florence Nightingale On Nursing Essay. Proper ventilation which lets in fresh air into the nursing environment would catalyze the natural healing process. However, it should be ensured that the patient is protected from bad air and chillness. This principle is important in nursing because an attempt to keep a ward warm at the expense of making the sick repeatedly breathe their own hot, humid, putrescent atmosphere is a certain way to delay recovery or to destroy life (Nightingale F,1860). The five integral factors in securing the health of a nursing environment especially in houses are pure water, efficient drainage, cleanliness, light, and pure air. These factors not only catalyze the healing but also would prevent the chances of infection.
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Care of the sick and injured was brought from the home, to the hospitals, military hospitals, and the battlefield. Reform was necessary. Dorothea Dix was appointed as superintendent of women nurses by in the Union Army. She was instrumental in planning new hospitals, and led the supervision of nursing programs. Dorothea Dix led under the nursing principles from Florence Nightingale. There were many volunteers that had impact. Many were untrained, but the women that dove into that type of environment, improved the welfare of the soldiers. Many military doctors protested women nurses on the battlefield, but soon gave in with overwhelming number of dying and injured soldiers. Also Clara Barton, a former teacher, led a large effort in getting supplies to the soldiers, and helping on the battlefield. She received credit for the creation of American Red Cross. Her organization skills helped gain further recognition for…show more content…
Reformed groups collaborated to discuss plans for nursing programs, and candidates that would prove acceptable in the nursing role. Doctors were against nursing training in the hospitals initially. The medical field was just emerging as well. Nurses had to be screened. They were assistants to doctors. These women were white, usually protestant, and well refined. These women worked in the hospitals in exchange for room and board. They worked ten hour days, 7 days a week, with little time off. The environment was very strict. There were rules that had to be obeyed. Nursing care was effective. Patient were getting better. The hospital surrounding was clean. The hospital used nursing student for their training, then once the student graduated, they were forced to seek employment as a private duty nurses in patient’s homes. Black nurses were segregated against. Beliefs Of Florence Nightingale On Nursing Essay. They had their own nursing schools. In the north, a few students were received. The south, offered no nursing programs for black students. The black nursing student were forced to deal with a segregated society during this
Florence from childhood loved God and holy Book. According to her, on the seventh of February 1837, while she was walking in a garden, she heard the voice of God, which was call her to a specific mission (1, 2).
Florence in 1844 decided to work at the hospital. But, her parents were opposed to this idea. In England in the middle of the nineteen century, nursing was not a decent job (3). In July 1850, she went to Germany and France and worked as a volunteer in hospitals (1). Then in 1853, she returned to London and worked as a manager in the hospital that was called Institute of the sick women (2). A year later, something happened that opened a new way in the Florence life.
Crimean war: In 1854, Britain, France and Turkey started a war with Russia thus Crimean war began. In September in one of the struggles in Alma, the Russia was defeated but England had a lot of casualties (2). There was a lack of medical facilities and high mortality in British military camps. Sydney Herbert, the minister of war, was a friend of Florence; so, she took the advantage (3).
Florence in 1854 with 38 nurses went to a military camp of British soldiers, located on the outskirts of Constantinople (Istanbul) (2). Florence noticed that health status in these camps was devastating. Injured soldiers were left on the floor and the few doctors desperately were trying to manage patients with basic facilities, in dirty environment (4). Florence used her mathematical knowledge, and recorded the mortality rate in the hospital. Statistics showed that in every thousand injured soldiers, the six hundred were dying because of communicable and infectious diseases (2).
The Florence interventions were simple. She tried to provide a clean environment. She provided medical equipment, clean water and fruits (2). With this work the mortality rate decreased from 60% to 42% and then to 2.2% (4).
Florence was like mother for soldiers. She took the lamp every night and used to go to patients’ camp (3). Her great work attracted the attentions in England (5). She also used her fame and succeeded to attract the support of the Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and Prime Minister Lord Palmerston. Florence asked them to have a permission to do an official investigation in the context of the military hospitals. The request was agreed and then the Royal Institute of research on the health of the military established. She was a great humanitarian and scientific figure. Nightingale was also a well-known statistician as she has invented a special pie chart (Figure 2) (2). Beliefs Of Florence Nightingale On Nursing Essay.
Florence in 1860 established nightingale nursing school as the first nursing school in the world (4). With the establishment of this school, she changed nursing to a respectful profession.
End of life: Florence Nightingale in the last years of her life was suffering from a disease, which she acquired it during her service in Crimea (2). She wrote many book and reports, mostly in the field of nursing (3). One of these books, “notes on nursing” was published in 1860 that is the first book in nursing education. She insisted on the importance of building trusting relationships with patients (6). Nightingale believed that nurses’ presence with a client is a key stone for making a professional communication. Empathy with patient and making a common experience in moving toward health has been validated by Florence nightingale that reaches us to an aesthetic nursing care (7). Radmehr et al. (8) in a phenomenological study that is published in the present issue of Nursing and Midwifery Studies reported that understanding beyond words, creating a good and nice feeling by making the patient happy, and the sense of unity by perceiving the patient and the nurse as one existence are some aesthetic aspects of nursing (8); and showed that Iranian nurses also follow the spirit of nursing that has been established by Florence Nightingale. Florence services were the first efforts to relieve suffering during war. She died in 13 August 1910 at the age of ninety (1). There are some sentences of Florence included in Table 1 (9).
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Without hesitation, Nightingale looked at different types of religious orders and brought on thirty- four nurses (Biography Channel). Nothing could have been done to prepare Nightingale and her nurses for what they were about to experience. The hospital was a disgrace, patients laying in their own specimens and rodents and insects could be seen scurrying across the floors. It was no surprise that the majority of patients were dying of infectious diseases rather than the initial injury (Nightingale 1914, P 34- 35). Supplies were running out rather fast and it was difficult to find soap and even bandages. Beliefs Of Florence Nightingale On Nursing Essay. At times it would be required to ration out water amounts to the patients. This disgusted Florence; I mean who would not be completely sickened out by this? However, the independent Florence Nightingale did not panic and quickly came up with a plan to bring this hospital back to its original power. The hospital was scrubbed from top to bottom and Florence spent any free time she had with her patients. She soon became known as “the Lady with the Lamp” because when she did her nightly routine she carried a lamp with her. Another nickname she encountered was “the Angel of the Crimea” because she decreased the death rate by two- thirds (Biography Channel).
Eventually Florence drew up a plan in order for the patients to heal fast and more efficiently. She said there were five basic substances every patient needs for securing healthy living spaces and they are: pure air, pure. Beliefs Of Florence Nightingale On Nursing Essay.
