Women Along the Historical Way...
Florence Nightingale : Nurse, Mathematician, Author, Feminist
by Kathy Warnes
Florence Nightingale founded the nursing profession, but she was also gifted in mathematics, a prolific author, and a confirmed feminist. The Florence Nightingale Museum, tucked in the grounds of St. Thomas’ Hospital in London, opposite the Houses of Parliament, celebrates Florence Nightingale and her contribution to nursing.
The Nightingale Nurses and the Nightingale Pledge
Considered the founder of the nursing profession, Florence Nightingale was born on May 12, 1820, and died on August 13, 1910. She became famous for her
pioneer nursing work in the Crimean War. The London Times called her “The Lady with the Lamp,” because she walked the dark hospital wards with a
lamp to light her way to comfort and tend injured soldiers.
In 1860, she founded the nursing school at St. Thomas’ Hospital in London, which was the first secular nursing school in the world. It is now called the
Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery and is part of King’s College London.
At a service held every year on May 12 in Westminster Abbey in London, a lamp is taken from the Nurse’s Chapel in the Abbey and handed from one nurse to
another, symbolizing the transfer of knowledge from one nurse to another. Florence Nightingale is buried at St. Margaret’s Church at West Wellow in
Hampshire, and a service is always held there on the Sunday after her birthday.
Florence Follows Her Calling
Although she was born into a wealthy, genteel family, Florence Nightingale believed that she had received a divine calling to go into nursing. In 1844,
she persisted in her decision, despite the passionate opposition of her mother and sister. By choosing to go into nursing, she rebelled against the Victorian
expectations for women of her class to be a wife and mother. Despite the opposition of her parents and society, she worked hard to educate herself in the
art and science of nursing.
Her father gave Florence an income which translates to about $50,000 dollars in modern currency, that enabled her to study and tour in Europe for several
years. Eventually she returned to England and on August 22, 1853, she accepted the position of superintendent at the Institute for the Care of Sick
Gentlewomen in Upper Harley Street in London.
“The Lady of the Lamp”
In 1853, the Crimean War, a dispute between the Russian Empire on one side and an alliance of the British, French, and Ottoman Empires on the other,
erupted and continued until 1856. Reports about the horrible conditions that wounded soldiers endured filtered back to Britain and on October 21, 1854,
Florence and a staff of 38 women volunteer nurses that she had trained were sent to Turkey where the main British camp was based. They arrived in Scutari
near modern day Istanbul in November 1854, and began to care for the wounded.
Her experience with the high death rates and lack of sanitation and nutrition for the soldiers at Scutari convinced Florence that most of the soldiers at the hospital died because of poor living conditions. Her experiences in the Crimean War motivated her to crusade for sanitary living conditions and
they made her known throughout the world.
Notes on Nursing, Notes on Hospitals
By the end of the Crimean War, Florence Nightingale’s accomplishments included establishing her nurse’s training school at St. Thomas Hospital and
sending the first trained Nightingale nurses to work at the Liverpool Workhouse on May 16, 1865. She wrote Notes on Nursing, a 136 page book that
served as the curriculum cornerstone for Nightingale and other nursing schools.
Notes on Hospitals, another of her popular books, deals with the correlation of sanitary techniques to medical facilities. Her work laid the foundation for the United States Sanitary Commission during the American Civil War, and she trained Linda Richards, the first professional American nurse.
Author, Mathematician, Feminist
Along with her nursing skills, Florence Nightingale was an excellent author and mathematician and she played an important role in English feminism. She
became a pioneer in presenting information with statistical graphics and developed a pie chart now called the polar area diagram to illustrate nursing
statistics.
As Florence Nightingale struggled with the expectations of her society and her expectations of herself, she wrote Suggestions for Thought to Searchers
after Religious Truth. A section of the books called “Cassandra”, protested the learned helplessness of women such as her mother and older sister and she
rejected their lives of intellectual inactivity and comfort for the world of social service and intellectual growth.
American literary critic and feminist Elaine Showalter called Florence Nightingale’s writing “a major text of English feminism, a link between
Wollstonecraft and Woolf.”
Florence Nightingale “Unrepresentative?”
Over the past few decades, British public sector union Unison has lobbied to celebrate International Nurses Day on a date other than May 12, which is
Florence Nightingale’s birthday and the date that the International Council of Nurses commemorates her life. Some union members have suggested May 21, the
birthday of Elizabeth Fry, another 19th century reformer who founded the Institution of Nursing Sisters before Florence Nightingale founded her nursing
school and worked extensively with prisoners.
Some health workers argue that Florence Nightingale is unrepresentative of modern, multi-cultural nursing because of her white, middle class Protestant
upbringing, family fortune, and reputation for a hierarchical approach to nursing.
Florence Nightingale is Still Considered the Founder of Modern
Nursing
Other nurses and the Royal College of Nursing disagree with Unison. The Royal College of Nursing states that Florence Nightingale is considered the
founder of modern nursing and therefore, “the whole world for decades has used her birthday to celebrate International Nurses’ Day.”
References
Dossey, Barbara, Florence Nightingale: Mystic, Visionary, Healer. Lippincott, Williams & Willing, 2000.
Bostridge, Mark, Florence Nightingale: The Making of an Icon, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1st Edition, 2008.
Nightingale, Florence, Notes on Nursing: What It Is and What It Is Not, Dover Publications, 1969
Florence Nightingale founded the nursing profession, but she was also gifted in mathematics, a prolific author, and a confirmed feminist. The Florence Nightingale Museum, tucked in the grounds of St. Thomas’ Hospital in London, opposite the Houses of Parliament, celebrates Florence Nightingale and her contribution to nursing.
The Nightingale Nurses and the Nightingale Pledge
Considered the founder of the nursing profession, Florence Nightingale was born on May 12, 1820, and died on August 13, 1910. She became famous for her
pioneer nursing work in the Crimean War. The London Times called her “The Lady with the Lamp,” because she walked the dark hospital wards with a
lamp to light her way to comfort and tend injured soldiers.
In 1860, she founded the nursing school at St. Thomas’ Hospital in London, which was the first secular nursing school in the world. It is now called the
Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery and is part of King’s College London.
At a service held every year on May 12 in Westminster Abbey in London, a lamp is taken from the Nurse’s Chapel in the Abbey and handed from one nurse to
another, symbolizing the transfer of knowledge from one nurse to another. Florence Nightingale is buried at St. Margaret’s Church at West Wellow in
Hampshire, and a service is always held there on the Sunday after her birthday.
Florence Follows Her Calling
Although she was born into a wealthy, genteel family, Florence Nightingale believed that she had received a divine calling to go into nursing. In 1844,
she persisted in her decision, despite the passionate opposition of her mother and sister. By choosing to go into nursing, she rebelled against the Victorian
expectations for women of her class to be a wife and mother. Despite the opposition of her parents and society, she worked hard to educate herself in the
art and science of nursing.
Her father gave Florence an income which translates to about $50,000 dollars in modern currency, that enabled her to study and tour in Europe for several
years. Eventually she returned to England and on August 22, 1853, she accepted the position of superintendent at the Institute for the Care of Sick
Gentlewomen in Upper Harley Street in London.
“The Lady of the Lamp”
In 1853, the Crimean War, a dispute between the Russian Empire on one side and an alliance of the British, French, and Ottoman Empires on the other,
erupted and continued until 1856. Reports about the horrible conditions that wounded soldiers endured filtered back to Britain and on October 21, 1854,
Florence and a staff of 38 women volunteer nurses that she had trained were sent to Turkey where the main British camp was based. They arrived in Scutari
near modern day Istanbul in November 1854, and began to care for the wounded.
Her experience with the high death rates and lack of sanitation and nutrition for the soldiers at Scutari convinced Florence that most of the soldiers at the hospital died because of poor living conditions. Her experiences in the Crimean War motivated her to crusade for sanitary living conditions and
they made her known throughout the world.
Notes on Nursing, Notes on Hospitals
By the end of the Crimean War, Florence Nightingale’s accomplishments included establishing her nurse’s training school at St. Thomas Hospital and
sending the first trained Nightingale nurses to work at the Liverpool Workhouse on May 16, 1865. She wrote Notes on Nursing, a 136 page book that
served as the curriculum cornerstone for Nightingale and other nursing schools.
Notes on Hospitals, another of her popular books, deals with the correlation of sanitary techniques to medical facilities. Her work laid the foundation for the United States Sanitary Commission during the American Civil War, and she trained Linda Richards, the first professional American nurse.
Author, Mathematician, Feminist
Along with her nursing skills, Florence Nightingale was an excellent author and mathematician and she played an important role in English feminism. She
became a pioneer in presenting information with statistical graphics and developed a pie chart now called the polar area diagram to illustrate nursing
statistics.
As Florence Nightingale struggled with the expectations of her society and her expectations of herself, she wrote Suggestions for Thought to Searchers
after Religious Truth. A section of the books called “Cassandra”, protested the learned helplessness of women such as her mother and older sister and she
rejected their lives of intellectual inactivity and comfort for the world of social service and intellectual growth.
American literary critic and feminist Elaine Showalter called Florence Nightingale’s writing “a major text of English feminism, a link between
Wollstonecraft and Woolf.”
Florence Nightingale “Unrepresentative?”
Over the past few decades, British public sector union Unison has lobbied to celebrate International Nurses Day on a date other than May 12, which is
Florence Nightingale’s birthday and the date that the International Council of Nurses commemorates her life. Some union members have suggested May 21, the
birthday of Elizabeth Fry, another 19th century reformer who founded the Institution of Nursing Sisters before Florence Nightingale founded her nursing
school and worked extensively with prisoners.
Some health workers argue that Florence Nightingale is unrepresentative of modern, multi-cultural nursing because of her white, middle class Protestant
upbringing, family fortune, and reputation for a hierarchical approach to nursing.
Florence Nightingale is Still Considered the Founder of Modern
Nursing
Other nurses and the Royal College of Nursing disagree with Unison. The Royal College of Nursing states that Florence Nightingale is considered the
founder of modern nursing and therefore, “the whole world for decades has used her birthday to celebrate International Nurses’ Day.”
References
Dossey, Barbara, Florence Nightingale: Mystic, Visionary, Healer. Lippincott, Williams & Willing, 2000.
Bostridge, Mark, Florence Nightingale: The Making of an Icon, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1st Edition, 2008.
Nightingale, Florence, Notes on Nursing: What It Is and What It Is Not, Dover Publications, 1969
