Angeles U niversity Foundation

Angeles City
College of Nursing 2019-
2020

Efficiency of Florence Nightingale’s

Submitted to:
Ms. Princess Halili Policarpio

Submitted by:
Bognot, Carmela
Diaz, Kimberly
Gueco, Kyla
Santiago, Carmela
Sayco, Racquel
Silva, Jean
Soldevilla, Martina Ampy M.
 Florence’s contributions to nursing were based on her deep- seated belief that nurses

should maintain a leadership role in healthcare reform and not just accept the status quo

(Nightingale, 1859). She believed nurses should not only be involved in caring for individuals

during sickness, but also during times of wellness. For much of Florence’s adulthood, her

impressive mission in life was to serve humankind by promoting wellness and preventing

senseless morbidity and mortality. She tena- ciously pursued this aspiration by taking on various

administrative roles in a variety of settings, including the British military healthcare system.

Florence is best known for her contributions toward the reformation of the British

military healthcare system during the 19th century (Cohen, 1984, Sarmadi, 2014). This

reformation occurred through Florence’s relentless- ness to convince others to implement many

of the basic health and hygiene principles that are now taken for granted in present day

healthcare systems. This undertaking was a monumental endeavor because during this time in

history, nurses were not considered professionals, and women in general were evaluated against

contextual social restraints of Victorian England. Florence was keenly aware of these barriers. As

a result, she knew that in order to implement changes to the British healthcare system, she would

need effective administrative skills and a considerable amount of evidence to persuade skeptical

men in power (Ulrich, 1992).

Nightingale was born in 1820 in Florence, Italy the city she was named for. A legacy of

humanism, liberal thinking and love of speculative thought was bequeathed to Nightingale by her

father. His father’s view in education for women was far ahead of his time. William her father,

undertook the education of both she and her sister. They took studies in music, grammar,
composition, modern languages, Ancient and Latin, constitutional history and mathematics

(Barritt, 1973).

Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) is considered as the first nurse theorist. Florence

Nightingale rose to fame for nursing the sick and wounded during the Crimean War (1854–56).

After the war, she might have taken a high-profile post as a hospital matron and superintendent

of nurse training. Instead, she retired from public life to use her influence to campaign and

promote educational schemes. Her impact was probably greater for choosing to influence policy

rather than exercising power.

Nightingale’s (1859/1969) vision of nursing has been practiced for more than a century

and theory development in nursing has evolved rapidly over the past 6 decades, leading to the

recognition of nursing as an academic discipline with a specialized body of knowledge

(Alligood, 2014; Bixler 1959; Chinn & Kramer, 2015; Fawcet & DeSanto-Medeya, 2013; Im &

Chang, 2012; Walker & Avant, 2011). Not only is theory essential for the existence of nursing as

an academic discipline, it is also vital to the practice of professional nursing (McCrae, 2012).

Many factors influenced the development of Nightingale’s Theory of Nursing. Individual,

societal and professional values were all integral in the development of her work. She combined

her individual resources with societal and professional to produce change. Nightingale, who

considered nursing a religious calling to be answered only by women, believed she could strive

to change the things she saw as unacceptable. Chinn and Jacobs note that “When individual or

professional values, there is potential for creating change in society.” Nightingale lived up to that

potential. Her theory of nursing focused on the environment and she gave a detailed portrayal of

each feature of the environment in her theory. According to Florence nightingale many of the
problems faced by the patients are not directly related to their ailment but the environment in

which they are living.

Nightingale’s grand theory focused on the environment. Environment is the surrounding

matters that influence or modify a course of development, the system must interact and adjust to

its environment. Environment which is capable of preventing, suppressing or contributing to

disease, accidents or death, in all the eternal conditions and influences affecting the life and

developments of all organisms. When one or more aspects of the environment are out of balance,

the clients must use increased energy to canter the environmental stress (BT Basavanthappa,

2007). These aspects of the physical environment are also influenced by the social and

psychological environment of the individual. Due to Nightingale’s concern with the environment

and the human being, she acted in the prevention and control of infectious diseases and hospital

infections, even before having knowledge about bacteria. She went beyond the environment with

her concern about the vital power of the human being which, when strengthened, increased their

immune system and decreased their vulnerability to infectious diseases. Nursing, unlike the past,

has grown tremendously in a more structured way. The conventional education to the nurse in a

submissive position has been replaced by autonomy in working place.

Nightingale's contribution to the present nursing scenario is significant in education,

practice, research as well as administration. Her significant contributions include her advocacy

for egalitarian human rights and for advocacy in her leadership roles. Nursing is now recognizing

how her ideas and techniques can be useful in the 21st century ( Carraro, and Telma Elisa, 2004).

Nightingale demonstrated excellent managerial skills. She wrote several books and Her most

famous book, "Notes on Nursing: What it is and what it is not" is a must read for nursing

professionals, since it is filled with wisdom, wit, history and knowledge which related to nursing
featuring the essentials for nursing practice which have been guiding principles even today. She

emphasized the procedure to be established for a sound practice which is possible for the next

person to continue to practice even when other one is not available.

Nightingale stressed on transparency in addition to the competent, effective practice. She

was methodical and believed that a hospital can be better managed with team work and if

functioned in more organized way (Asha P Shetty, 2016). Although Notes of Nursing is

Nightingale’s most accessible work, she also wrote Notes on Hospitals and Introductory Notes

on Lying-in Institutions (the first maternity centers) as well as numerous letters (Vicinus &

Nergaard, 1990). In her volumes of writing she provide much information on the influence of the

environment on the human being and the critical nature of balance between the human and his or

her environment. The goal of nursing as described by Nightingale is assisting the patient on his

or her retention “vital powers” by meeting his or her needs, and thus putting the patient in the

best condition for nature to act upon (Nightingale, 1860/1986). The focus of this nursing activity

was the proper use of fresh air, and administration of diet, monitoring the patient’s expenditure

of energy, and observing. This nursing activity was directly toward the environment and patient.

Florence Nightingale’s legacy of caring and the activism it implies is carried on in nursing today.

There is resurgence and inclusion of concepts of spirituality in current nursing practice and a

delineation of nursing’s caring base that in essence began with the nursing life of Florence

nightingale. She said to herself that the specific business of nursing was least important of the

functions into which she had been forced to Crimea.

Florence Nightingale was considered the mother of modern nursing. She is an advocacy,

a writer, a nurse and theorist. One of her books is the "Notes on Nursing: What it is and what it is

not" that is used in studying nursing profession up to this day. Her advocacies change the
perception of health professionals which considered nursing as an important task and calling for

those women who are passionate about it. Furthermore, according to her environment is also the

problem that the person faced besides her ailment that is why her theory is all about the

environment of the patient.

For Nightingale, it is the most important factor to consider in helping the patient get its

optimum health. To her, if the environment of the patient is not appropriate such as clean or

sanitized, it will cause much more harm and stress to the patient, there is a possibility their illness

will get worse. With her concern with environment and the people she acted on how to prevent

infectious diseases and how to control hospital infections even though Nightingale didn’t have

sufficient knowledge about bacteria back then. Even though she does not have enough

experience or knowledge about infection control, she believed that environment and human

being are related to each other. In addition, Nightingale believed that to achieve the best

organization of hospitals it must have teamwork and a more organized way of functioning.

This would help the health care team to manage their entire patient and give the right

care. With nightingale’s eagerness to improve nursing, she went beyond on what is expected that

up to this day her practices are still being done for the the betterment of the patient. To conclude

her optimum goal is to provide the best care for the patient by making importance of its

environment for everything to be well balance. With these notes that Nightingale came up, it

made a big impact on the nursing profession to help on what to prioritize. Nightingale has shown

that anyone can provide health services if there will be passion and will to help other amidst any

situation. Nightingale’s history made a significant role for nurse and to open the minds of

humanity on how she made a big impact on what is nursing is today. Without Nightingale,

nursing profession will only be downgraded and won’t be recognized.

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