Florence Nightingale – the lady with the lamp

Background Information:

 She came from a wealthy family which was horrified by her wanting to be a
nurse. Nurses were not respectable or trained.
 Despite of this, she ended up training at Kaiserwerth Hospital in 1850 in
Germany.
 She eventually returned to Britain to work as a nurse and became the
Superintendent of Nurses in a London Hospital.

Her work in Crimea:

 When the Crimean War broke out in 1854, she heard reports of the terrible
conditions in the Crimea and so she talked to the Minister for War, Sidney
Herbert, a family friend.
 He arranged for her to take 38 nurses to the Crimea.
 When she arrived at the Scutari Military Hospital in Turkey, she was appalled
by the dirty conditions.

What were the conditions like in the hospital before Florence arrived?

 The hospital was overcrowded and filthy. There were not enough beds, so men lay on the floor, unwashed.
 There were no proper toilets. Drains were blocked. Rats ran everywhere and the smell was terrible.
 The patients ate bread that was mouldy-green  and meat 'more like leather', Florence said.
 There was no soap or basins or towels in the wards. The consequences of all this were fever, cholera,
gangrene and lice. Without good food, sick men could not get better. Without clean bandages, clean beds
and clean water, many died from diseases.

What did Florence and her team of Nurses do?

 On her arrival in Scutari she requested 80 more nurses and 300 scrubbing brushes. Nightingale worked to
reduce the numbers of soldiers who were dying from illnesses such as typhus, caused by poor standards
of cleanliness.
 She worked 20 hours a day; she organized care and bought supplies such as bandages and food for the
hospital, using her own money and put great emphasis on the cleanliness of the hospital and patients as
well as the need to ventilate the hospital so the patients can get fresh air (she believed that disease was
caused by Miasma).
 According to a letter she wrote to the British government on the 25th of November 1854, 200 or 300 arm-
slings, stump-pillows and other medical appliances were being weekly manufactured and given out by her
and her team of nurses.
 They also repaired the wards for 800 wounded (letter from the 10th of December 1854).
 As a result of her hard work, the death rate in the hospital fell from 40- 42% of wounded to 2%!!! 

Significance/ the impact of Florence Nightingale?

 Her work in regulating the training of nurses was a significant factor in how hospitals were run. It was
reported in British newspapers.
 She set high standards of hygiene in her hospitals and training of nurses – for example she insisted on
only one patient in each bed.
 After her work in Crimea, she returned to Britain a national heroine and this helped her raise money (the
public contributed money) to establish her first nursing school; the Nightingale school for Nurses in London
in 1860.
 Overall, she wrote over 200 books about hospital design and organization.
 In 1859, she published her first book ‘Notes on Nursing’ about practical care and high standards- which has
been translated into 11 languages. In 1863, ‘Notes on Hospitals’. Both books were very influential all over
the world, they helped many student nurses, providing the basis for training nurses and hospital design.
 She was also influential in established a training for midwives at King’s College Hospital, London in 1861.
She paid very little attention to Pasteur’s Germ Theory when it appeared in the decade after the Crimean
War.
 She continued to associate disease with dirt and this is why she concentrated on improving:

- Sanitation in hospitals – clean water supplies, good drains, toilet cleanliness

- Good ventilation in hospitals to make sure patients got fresh, clean air to breathe
- Food supplies, clothing and washing facilities for patients

 She became known was the founder of Modern Nursing. Nursing schools spread worldwide using her
system of nurse education.

 Her nursing schools concentrated on training nurses in very practical skills. She did not let doctors teach
nurses about germ theory because she felt that such ideas would simply get in the way of nurses’ more
important task – keeping patients and wards clean.
 By 1900 there were 64,000 trained nurses. Florence had helped change the profession of

Impact – how many people were helped or hindered Change – how did their work affect
by their work? medicine or the sick or other
women?
Florence  According to a letter she wrote to the British  Nursing schools spread
Nightingale government on the 25th of November 1854, 200 or worldwide using her system of
300 arm-slings, stump-pillows and other medical nurse education.
appliances were being weekly manufactured and
given out by her and her team of nurses.
 They repaired the wards for 800 wounded (letter
from the 10th of December 1854).
 The death rate in the hospital fell from 40% of
wounded to 2%.
 Set up her first nursing school in Britain.
 In 1859, she wrote her book ‘Notes on Nursing’
and in 1863 ‘Notes on Hospitals’. Both books were
very influential all over the world and provided the
basis for training nurses and hospital design.
nursing forever.