Florence Nightingale -- Nursing Theorist The pioneering healthcare services that Florence Nightingale performed during 1854 Crimean War in Europe is today recognized as the beginning of the organized and sanitary field of nursing. This paper follows the career of Nightingale and recognizes her contribution to the theory of nursing care -- and the development of nursing training -- for the ill and the injured.

The Progression of Florence Nightingale's Career

From Financial Comfort to Rebellion

Born into a wealthy family with parents that expected her to do the things young ladies did in the 19th century -- to occupy herself with "embroidery, playing the piano and painting" -- Nightingale nonetheless resisted those callings and carved out her own career. Instead of falling into the comfort of what rich people did in that era in Europe, Nightingale resisted and rebelled. From the time she could think and dream about what her life should be Nightingale believed that her passion to help others and to do morally uplifting deeds would supersede the pretensions that her wealthy family had planned for her. After telling her parents...

Her parents stubbornly insisted that she live the life of an upper-class Victorian woman but she never gave in to their insistence. After about nine years of debating with her parents about her plans, they "…reluctantly allowed her to leave home for training at the Institution for Deaconesses at Kaiserwerth in Germany" (Garofalo, 1588). This is the evolution that Nightingale went through prior to her nursing education and her actual nursing experience
From Wealth to Filth -- Nightingale's Contribution

There was no theory, per se, developed by Nightingale, but there was a new path to proper, sanitary, organized nursing that was created by Nightingale. So it can be said that she made an enormous contribution to the field of nursing and healthcare. The real purpose of Nightingale's life came clear to her after her training was complete. She worked in healthcare in London for a year until the Crimean War broke out in 1854; at that time she organized a…