Florence Nightingale -- Nurse Theorist

Florence Nightingale -- Nurse Theorist

The nurse theorist that likely had the most influence on the institution of nursing was Florence Nightingale. This paper reviews her nursing innovations and points to her viewpoints and definitions as well.

Nightingale

Nightingale struggled to get into the career she desired against her wealthy parents, who believed she should do what upper class women were typically supposed to do in the 19th century, stay at home, marry, and have children while keeping the house neat and clean. But Nightingale dove into health issues notwithstanding her parents' wishes -- against "strenuous family opposition," is how Alex Attewell explained it in a UNESCO article.

Nightingale's view of humanity is to be found in the approach she took to her work and her passion to contribute to the health of those who were sick. "Trials must be made, efforts ventured -- some bodies must fall in the breach for others to step upon," she wrote in 1846, to her father. Clearly she was seeing that new theories must be applied and new procedures must be embraced for healthcare to advance beyond the primitive state that it was in at that time (Attewell, 1998, p. 3). Women long for an education, Nightingale explained, in her chapter "Cassandra" (1860); women long for "…education to teach them to teach, to teach them the laws of the human mind and how to apply them," Attewell quotes from Nightingale's book.

Nightingale believed that God created "miasmatic disease in order that Man should learn its causes through observation," Attewell explains; and after Man learns was causes disease, Man should then "prevent its recurrence through management of the environment" (Attewell, 4). The way that God had set about to help humanity, Nightingale believed, was that nurses, with their obligation to understand and carry through procedures that promote hygiene, "…had a unique opportunity for spiritual advancement" (Attewell, 4). Nurses could then discover "the nature of God by learning his 'laws of health'" she wrote in 1873 (quoted by Attewell, 4).

So it is clear that Nightingale's views of man, the environment, health and nursing all sprang from the fact that she was very religious and believed that God's hand was always involved in these health and human dynamics. Nightingale believed that people derived meaning from their various life experiences and the extent to which their lives bring meaning to them has a direct baring on the health condition of their bodies.

Her theory of learning was an exercise in logic: "Observation tells how the patient is; reflection tells what is to be done; training tells how it is to be done. Training and experience are, of course, necessary to teach us, too, how to observe, what to observe; how to think, what to think" (Attewell quoting Nightingale's 1882 narrative on her theory of learning) (8).

How has the theorist influenced my nursing practice and philosophy? What stands out for me is Nightingale's leadership qualities. She was brilliant in her understanding of health needs, but moreover, she was tactful and when in 1854 she got involved in helping the wounded from the Crimean War, was able to change the attitudes of doctors, and have them accept her and her nurses. Not by verbally demanding respect, but by her professional actions (involving hygiene) that commanded respect. Moreover, she used her influence in "high places, even to the Queen and Prince Albert, to fight for effective reform of the entire system of military hospitals" (EWB, 1998).