Theories Developed by Florence Nightingale

¶ … Theories Developed by Florence Nightingale and Their Impact on the Nursing Profession

Perhaps the most well-known nurse in history is Florence Nightingale; what is less well-known, though, are the theories of nursing that she introduced more than a century and a half ago. Also known as the "Lady of the Lamp," Nightingale's nursing theories were introduced during a highly formative period in medicine, but her compassionate approach to caring for others emerged as an enduring model for the profession that endures to this day (Grant, 2002). This paper provides an overview of Florence Nightingale and her nursing theories, followed by an assessment of their impact on the nursing profession today. A summary of the research is provided in the conclusion.

Review and Discussion

According to one of her many biographers, Florence Nightingale born in 1820 and died in 1910. During the Crimean War (1854-56), Nightingale was responsible for nursing in the military hospitals at Scutari, Turkey, where she struggled to meet the enormous challenges represented by overcrowded conditions, inadequate sanitation, and a lack of basic medical necessities (Underwood, 2005). The graphic at Appendix A helps to highlight the abysmal conditions Nightingale found on her arrival there. Based on her experiences on the field of battle, Nightingale recognized the need for a professional cadre of nurses. Armed with £45,000 from the Nightingale Fund (contributed by the public in recognition of her Crimean work), she established the first school for nurses in the world, the Nightingale School for Nurses at St. Thomas's Hospital in London in 1860. Nightingale also played a key role in developing training programs for midwives and for nurses in workhouse infirmaries, and is credited with important reforms in workhouses (Underwood, 2005).

According to Warbinek and Zilm (1994), the nursing theories developed by Florence Nightingale had a profound influence on nursing education and resulted in a number of changes to the profession, one of which was that it had become largely a female occupation by the end of the 19th century. "Because of this," they say, "nursing at that time was considered a temporary career, lasting only until marriage. However, changes in health care and scientific advances were also affecting nursing" (Warbinek & Zilm, 1994, p. 5). These fundamental changes in health care practices and scientific innovation may have resulted in some changes in how nurses were used to care for others, but the primary goal of the nurses involved remained the same due in large part to the theories promulgated by Nightingale.

According to Peters (2001), Nightingale established principles of nursing that endure to this day. Nightingale wrote in 1869 that the purpose of nursing was to make the practitioner available to the other, and that to accomplish this level of care requires a particular state of consciousness and a recognition of the participatory nature of the reality of the patient's condition, and that the goal of the nurse is to put the patient in the best condition for nature to act (Peters, 2001). According to Peters, "We can bracket the impact of this style of 'being with' as 'placebo response', but the term tends to confuse because it obscures a valuable and potentially transformative reorientation of the practitioner -- client axis; the action of the placebo response is triggered by the loving, trusting presence of another in the therapeutic relationship" (p. 173).