Florence Nightingale’s Pioneering Role and Foundational Influences
Nurse and humanitarian Florence Nightingale is often credited for establishing modern nursing as a respected profession and popularizing the idea of providing care and assistance to those in need. In a patriarchal environment, she was a pioneer for women’s liberties as a humanist and abolitionist. Henri Dunant, the creator of the International Red Cross, was moved by her accounts of the Crimean War (Gilbert, 2020).
Nightingale was a forerunner of a new worldwide charity, and her work in Scurati was lauded at the inaugural convention of this organization in 1863 (Gilbert, 2020). Florence Nightingale, a British nurse, statistician, and social reformer, lived from 1820 until 1910 (Gilbert, 2020). She had a pivotal role in shaping nursing education, hospital architecture, and public health policy and is generally regarded as the pioneer of the contemporary nursing profession.
Nightingale’s nursing thought was shaped by her upbringing, personal convictions, and formal schooling. She came from an affluent background and had access to an outstanding education in fields like arithmetic, history, and philosophy, giving her the tools she needed to question conventional wisdom in the medical and nursing fields. Due to her strong religious convictions and sense of social duty, as well as her experiences as a nurse during the Crimean War, when she saw both great suffering and inadequate medical treatment, she came up with the environmental theory of nursing. The idea argued that the best way to stop the spread of illness was to maintain a healthy lifestyle by paying attention to what a person eats, how they treat their body, and how they clean their surroundings (Gilbert, 2020).
To give the greatest care for their patients, Nightingale thought nurses should have a scientific grasp of the human body and its functioning. She was also an outspoken supporter of nursing education and the legalization of nursing as a distinct profession. Ultimately, Nightingale’s upbringing, career, and personal convictions inspired her to formulate a philosophy of nursing that emphasized the significance of cleanliness, sanitation, and scientific knowledge of the human body in the delivery of competent care.
Nightingale’s Environmental Theory: Cleanliness and Scientific Knowledge
As Nightingale viewed it, nurses and nursing were and are essential to the smooth functioning of any hospital. The health and safety of the patients were always the priority, and cleanliness and proper hygiene were byproducts. Carbolic solutions were used as the sole safe way of disinfection, and their practical application assisted in this process. Nightingale argued that absolute cleanliness is a genuine disinfectant. The nurse has to be educated on the basics of infection and contagion as well as the differences between personal hygiene products like deodorant, disinfectant, and antiseptic (Peres, 2020).
It is worth noting that Nightingale did not know about the work of Ignaz Semmelweiss, who, in 1847-1848, introduced handwashing with disinfection between exams of obstetric patients in Vienna to cut the death rate, despite her interaction with other researchers who expressed similar ideas (Peres, 2020). Moreover, her statistical study of obstetric death rates matched up with what others had found. Many clinicians first recognized hospital-acquired infection in the middle of the 19th century. The high death rate linked to it may be traced back to a lack of basic sanitation measures, most notably the failure of medical professionals to wash their hands before treating patients (Peres, 2020). Nightingale’s Environmental Theory provided the theoretical foundation for the creation of modern infection control standards and practices, which have been in use ever since.
The Enduring Legacy and Modern Relevance
Consequently, the environmental theory has changed the approach towards care by developing core meta paradigms and their importance in the health of a person. Individual physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual aspects are all taken into account to define the meta-paradigm of a person (Peres, 2020). At the same time, the environment is the social and emotional conditions in which a person lives, which are essential in considering physical and mental health (Peres, 2020). The capacity to maximize one’s abilities, prevent illness, and recover from illness when required is what the health paradigm means (Peres, 2020).
From Nightingale’s perspective, nurses should have moral rectitude, a sense of calling, and a commitment to their patients (Peres, 2020). Assisting the patient in their rehabilitation by creating an optimal setting in which to do so requires teamwork. Nightingale stresses the need for a clean setting for practical nursing.
Modern studies of infection control and nursing practice draw heavily on Florence Nightingale’s nursing philosophy. Environmental theory informs critical analyses of current procedures and therapeutic suggestions. Gilbert (2020) recognizes Nightingale for elevating nursing to the status of a respected profession. Infection control, based on Nightingale’s Environmental Theory, is being used today. According to the author, many of Nightingale’s healthcare innovations have been made possible because of her legacy.
As Juthamanee (2020) states, infection control, cleanliness, clean water, fresh air, exercise, and a decent diet are still crucial to preventing the spread of illnesses like COVID-19. The author argues that Following Nightingale’s advice to wash one’s hands often might help stop the spread of the illness. Based on Nightingale’s epistemic legacy, Peres (2021) considers her impact on the health and nursing sectors. The author examines Nightingale’s theoretical model of nursing and demonstrates how Nightingale’s personal experiences, education, and cultural beliefs informed the institutionalization of her care. Nightingale’s thesis on nursing meta paradigms, in general, has continued to be significant in modern nursing practice and research.
References
Gilbert, H. A. (2020). Florence Nightingale’s environmental theory and its influence on contemporary infection control. Collegian, 27(6), 626–633. Web.
Juthamanee, S. (2020). ‘Wash your hands!’ The old message from Florence Nightingale to battle COVID-19. Belitung Nursing Journal, 6(2), 62. Web.
Peres, M. A., Aperibense, P. G., Dios-Aguado, M. de, Gómez-Cantarino, S., & Queirós, P. J. (2021). The Florence Nightingale’s nursing theoretical model: A transmission of knowledge. Revista Gaúcha De Enfermagem, 42(spe). Web.