Florence Nightingale (1820-1910)

…life story 1820: born in Florence, Italy (May 12) 1837: heard her calling from God 1840: “begged” her parents to let her study mathematics 1845: her family was against of the suggestion of Nightingale gaining any hospital experience 1849: tour of Europe and Egypt 1850: began her training as a nurse at the Institute of St Vincent de Paul in Alexandria, Egypt; in July she visited Pastor Theodor Flidener’s hospital near Düsseldorf (Germany) 1851: returned to Germany to undertake 3 months of nursing training at the Institute of Protestant Deaconesses; from there she moved to a hospital in St Germain, near Paris, run by the Sisters of Mercy 1853: returned to London and took up the unpaid position as the Superintendent at the Establishment for Gentlewomen during Illness 1854: the start of the Crimean War; on Sep 20 The Times criticized the British medical facilities. In response to that, Sidney Herbert, the British Secretary of War asked Nightingale to become the nursing administrator over there. She arrived in Scutari on 4 November 1854 with 38 nurses; her official title was Superintendent of the female Nursing Establishment of the English General Hospital in Turkey.

1856: returned to London where using her statistics, she illustrated the need for sanitary reform in all military hospitals 1857: her wishes for a formal investigation were granted; that led to the establishment of the Royal Commission on the Health of the Army 1858: became the first woman to be elected to be a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society 1860: the Nightingale Training School and Home for Nurses based at Thomas’ Hospital (London) opened with 10 students 1874: became an honorary member of the American Statistical Association 1883: Queen Victoria awarded her the Royal Red Cross for her work 1907: became the first women to receive the Order of Merit from Edward VII 1910: she died (Aug 13). She published 200 books, report and pamphlets, among them the first textbook specifically for use in the teaching of nurses, Notes on Nursing (1860). She responded to the British war office’s request for advice on army medical care in Canada and was also a consultant to the United States government on army health during the American Civil War.

Pioneer of nursing Reformer of hospital sanitation methods Innovator in the collection, tabulation, interpretation, and graphical display of descriptive statistics

Nightingale’s greatest life achievements: “The Lady with the Lamp” and her Accomplishments. Nightingale’s greatest life achievements: Pioneering of nursing - Developed a social movement in which nurses received better mathematical analysis and applied it in their daily job - Established a nursing school at St. Thomas’s Hospital and printed out the principles of nursing during 1860. Reform of Hospitals - Took the leadership to reform the hospitals by using statistics as a way to organize and improve the medical and surgical practices. - Developed a Model Hospital Statistical Form for hospitals to collect and generate consistent data and statistics. “I stand at the altar of the murdered men, and, while I live, I fight their cause.” F. Nightingale.

One major work of Florence Nightingale Polar Area Diagram

The original was in color, the outer area in blue, the central darker areas in black, and the central lighter areas in red. The areas are measured from the centre as a common vertex. Each area represents the deaths from Preventable or Mitigable Zymotic diseases, the red area represents the deaths from wounds, & the black represents deaths from all other causes. The black line across the red triangle in Nov. 1854 marks the boundary of the deaths from all other causes during the month. In October 1854, & April 1855, the black area is the same as the red, in January & February 1855, the blue is the same as the black.