Following in the Footsteps of Florence Nightingale

Every once in a great while an incredibly gifted person is born and shares their genius with the world. Born in May of 1820, one such person was Florence Nightingale. I had the incredible opportunity to follow in her footsteps over the last 12 days, traveling to London, where she carried out all of her advocacy work and political maneuvering; Embley Park, her childhood home where she received her basic education, mostly from her father; and then on to Istanbul, where she served in the Crimean War. I didn’t know much about Miss Nightingale before I started this very special study tour, but what I learned opened my eyes to the impact she made on this world, not only during her lifetime, but now and forever more. The entire trip was a “game changer” for me and I shall never look at nursing and health care the same way.

At right: Picture of stained glass window in the “Nurses Chapel” at Westminister Abby, London, re-dedicated to Nightingale in the 2010 Year of the Nurse…and the 100th Anniversary of her death.

Travel along with me now and read the highlights of my trip, including what I learned from Nightingale.
Link to the American Journal of Nursing blog site.

In addition to being the founder of modern nursing, she was a gifted statistician, whose evidence brought improvements first to the British military system, then to the health system in India, and the world. She not only used statistics and evidence to improve systems of care, but she was an incredible story teller. And, as I have learned time and again in the advocacy work that I do, it takes both evidence and stories to create change.

In London, I saw a part of her famed St. Thomas Hospital that she herself designed based on the lessons she learned from Scutari Hospital. She designed St. Thomas in a series of pavilions with connecting hallways, so that like illnesses could be treated together. Importantly, she called for large windows so that light and warmth, along with plenty of cross ventilation, could be used as part of the healing process.

At Embley Park, I learned of the turmoil her family sent through as Florence declared nursing as her calling. For years the battles, private and outward, raged as the Nightingales sought to protect their daughter from a life of “supposed” shame. Coming from a wealthy and prominent family, Florence was expected to marry and carry out wifely duties, which she adamantly refused to do.

Site of the Selimiye barracks in Istanbul, looking across the Bosphorus river. Part of the barracks were dedicated to Scutari Hospital

In Istanbul, which was Constantinople when Nightingale was there, I learned of her courage of convictions, as she first traveled the sea for many weeks to reach Scutari, but then to be met with a building in shambles…and where more men died than lived. Her gift as a highly organized administrator paired with her utilization of evidence and a basic knowledge of sanitation and public health, worked to bring the hospital mortality rate down from over 60% to around 2-3% in just 6 months time. She treated the soldiers in a holistic manner tending to their physical, mental and spiritual needs. Either she, or one of her nurses, stayed with a soldier as he lay dying. Her famed nightly rounds, holding an accordion lamp (not the mythical genie lamp so often shown in pictures). I have spent this journey laughing at her strong willed antics, crying at her burial site and when I bought my own replica of her lamp at the Grand Bazaar, and rooting for her as she fought with doctors, military officers and politicians for better care for “her” soldiers.

I am now leaving inspired and ever the more, so proud, to be a nurse!

Additional Links:

www.thefutureofnursing.org

www.iom.edu/nursing

www.facebook/futureofnuring

http://twitter.com/FutureofNursing

Contact Information:

Susan Hassmiller, PhD, RN, FAAN
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Senior Advisor for Nursing
Director, RWJF Initiative on the Future of Nursing at the IOM