How Did Florence Nightingale Influence Nursing

. She was asked to go and nurse the British soldier and was appointed superintendent of the Female Nursing Establishment of the English General Hospitals in Turkey. She took a revolutionary step by being the first women to ever hold that position, and she was very proud and happy. Nightingale had such a dramatic influence on nursing when the Crimean War started. “For 18 months during an otherwise forgettable war, Nightingale supervised a group of nurses in a British military hospital.” (Hobbs). Soon her excitement of holding that new position was replaced by her determination to better the hospitals because upon arrival she was informed that everything was in perfect order but, when she arrived the condition of the military hospital was horrendous! The hospital was lacking the basic medical
supplies, food, clothing, and clean water. To make things even worse, the injured and diseased patients were crowd in rooms with little, most of the time no ventilation. In time, Diseases such as cholera and typhus were all over. These type of diseased meant injured soldiers were more likely to die from a disease obtained at the hospital than they were on the battlefield. Nightingale started collecting data and planned a record keeping system which she used to improve the military hospitals. The lack of supplies, construction of the hospital and diseases that were developing ended up not being the only obstacle nightingale would have to overcome. On her journey she encountered the stubborn resistance from the military doctors and staff. Women during these times did not get involved with war related activity. This did not stop Nightingale, she started with making sure the ill were fed, cleaned clothed, and that the hospital was clean. Her results were quickly noticed. Nightingale's then started rebuilding the Barrack Hospital so in return the war men would have a better place. The doctors started to notice how amazing Florence and the nurses' work truly was and allowed them to care for the patients and assist the doctors. She struggled for a long time to get the higher ups to admit there was any sort of problem with the medial system. However, Nightingale demanded change and she had some powerful people on her side. Such as the Doctors and their staff, the Home government, The Times, public opinion, and the most important, the queen. With their help Nightingale reformed the hospitals as well as some of the army's medical policies. “She was proud that the death rate among men housed in huts in the last six months of the Crimean War was less than that of men living in English barracks during peacetime.” (McDonald 2) In the first year of her arrival the mortality rate of the soldiers dropped significantly.
The men were not only physically hurt, but emotionally damaged. Nightingale set up reading and recreational rooms to help with the emotional damage which is just as important to heal as the physical damage. She also assisted them in managing and saving money from their salaries and held classes and lectures for these men. Nightingale looked at the whole picture of someone and their life not just the quick fix. Florence Nightingale started to receive attention from all over the world on her great contributions to the hospital mortality rate. “Nightingales service from 1854-1855 offered the British public a model of competence and heroism that was sorely lacking in the military.” (Hobbs) After all the struggles and accomplishments she made and went through during the war, Nightingale still worked harder than ever to help those in need. For the next fifty years, she fought for hospital reforms. She refused to quit working even when she was diagnosed with health problems that at times kept her in bed. Nightingale would write letters and reports from her bed. Every time she felt a little better she would go out visiting influential people and hospitals trying to make more
reforms. Nightingale later wrote a report, Notes on Matters Affecting the Health, Efficiency, and Hospital Administration of the British Army (1858), and A Contribution to the Sanitary History of the British Army During the Late War with Russia (1859), which was submitted to England's Royal Commission. “At the request of the war minister, Lord Panmure, she prepared a ‘‘précis’’ on the problems of the war, which was to take six months, but which turned out to be 900-page report two years later.” (McDonald) Her report was read by members of the commission and they agreed with her suggestions. Nightingale was then contacted and asked by the sanitary commission to investigate army medical conditions in India. By the time she was invited to go to India, Nightingale had already become a medical authority, and her reputation only kept spreading with the help of her book, Notes on Hospitals (1859). Her book completely transformed hospital construction and administrative practices. Nightingale then opened the Nightingale Training School for Nurses at St. Thomas's Hospital. “St Thomas’ was the starting point, but the intention was that it strained nurses would reform nursing in other hospitals.” (McDonald 3) In that same year, she published Notes on Nursing: What It Is, and What It Is Not. Nightingale earned the reputation of the founder of modern nursing by establishing a nursing hospital. Florence Nightingale defined nursing over 100 years ago. She is considered the first nurse theorist, Nightingale raised the status of nursing through education.