Angeles U niversity Foundation
Angeles City
College of Nursing 20192020
Efficiency of Florence Nightingale’s
Notes on Nursing on Contemporary
Period.
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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