The portrait depicts Florence Nightingale against a backdrop of the Crimean War, the 1853-1856 conflict in which she and her team of volunteer nurses revolutionized sanitary conditions in military hospitals and saved many lives. Image courtesy: Johnson & Johnson Archives. The painting of Florence Nightingale commissioned by Johnson & Johnson. Dirty carpets and unclean furniture, she wrote with characteristic bluntness, “pollute the air just as much as if there were a dung heap in the basement”. In her view, all domestic interiors must be kept clean. And she advocated improving drainage to combat water-borne diseases like cholera and typhoid. Nightingale strongly counseled that people open windows to maximize light and ventilation and displace “stagnant, musty and corrupt” air. ![]() There was straightforward advice on everything from how to avoid excessive smoke from fireplaces (don’t let the fire get too low, and don’t overwhelm it with coal) to the safest material with which to cover walls (oil paints, not wallpaper). It advised ordinary people how to maintain healthy homes – particularly women, in accordance with the world view of the time. (The same is true today: in Wuhan’s coronavirus outbreak, around 75-80% of transmissions were reportedly in family clusters.) Notes on Nursing was more of a public health instruction book than a nursing manual. This was the place where most people contracted and suffered from infectious diseases. Like many public health experts of her age, Nightingale considered the home to be a crucial site for disease-preventing interventions. Nightingale’s attention to international medical research and developments was just one factor behind her ability to make effective interventions in public health. This was relatively new advice, first publicized by Hungarian doctor Ignaz Semmelweis in the 1840s, who had observed the dramatic difference it made to death rates on maternity wards. ” Nightingale considered the home to be a crucial site for disease-preventing interventions.ĭuring the Crimean War (1853-1856) Nightingale had implemented hand-washing and other hygiene practices in British army hospitals. In her book Notes on Nursing (1860), she wrote: “Every nurse ought to be careful to wash her hands very frequently during the day. Her ideas on how to stay healthy still resonate today – as politicians give official guidance on how best to battle coronavirus.įor example, although Nightingale did not fully subscribe to the idea that many diseases are caused by specific micro-organisms known as germs until she was in her sixties, she was well aware of the importance of hand-washing. ![]() Her approach to caring for wounded soldiers and training nurses in the 19th century saved and improved countless lives. The trailblazing nurse published her revolutionary work on public health and hospital design during her own quarantine.Īccording to Joshua Hammer, author of an article in the March edition of Smithsonian magazine, “Researchers are calling attention to her pioneering work as a statistician and as an early advocate for the modern idea that health care is a human right.”įlorence Nightingale: Changing the Field of Nursing – Fast Facts | Historyįlorence Nightingale, who was born 200 years ago, is rightly famed for revolutionizing nursing. ![]() Thomas’ Hospital and the Nightingale Training School for Nurses. Her writings sparked worldwide health care reform. During the Crimean War, she and a team of nurses improved the unsanitary conditions at a British base hospital, reducing the death count by two-thirds. She was named in honor of her birth city. This article first appeared on The Conversation (see below)įlorence Nightingale was born in Florence, Italy on May 12, 1820. FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE : a pioneer of handwashing and hygiene for health
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