Florence Nightingale

Florence Nightingale was born to a wealthy, well-connected British family at the Villa Colombaia in Florence, Italy. She was named after the city of her birth, as was her older sister Parthenope, named as the Greek name for the city of Naples). Her parents were William Nightingale and Frances Nightingale.

Inspired by what she understood to be a divine calling, experienced first in 1837 at Embley Park and later throughout her life, Nightingale made a commitment to nursing. This demonstrated a strong will on her part, and also a rebellion against the expected role for a woman of her status, which was to become an obedient wife. In those days, nursing was a career with a poor reputation, filled mostly by poorer women, "hangers-on" who followed the armies, and nurses were equally likely to function as cooks. Nightingale would announce her decision to enter nursing in 1845, evoking intense anger and distress from her family, particularly her mother.

Nightingale wasn't particularly concerned with the appalling conditions of medical care for poor and indigent. In December 1844, in response to a pauper's death in a workhouse infirmary in London that became a public scandal, she became the leading advocate for improved medical care in the infirmaries and immediately engaged the support of Charles Villiers, then president of the Poor Law Board. This led to her active role in the reform of the Poor Laws, extending far beyond the provision of medical care.

In 1846 she visited Kaiserswerth, Germany, and learned more of its pioneering hospital established by Theodor Fliedner and managed by an order of Lutheran deaconesses. She was profoundly impressed by the quality of care and by the commitment and practices of the deaconesses.

Nightingale was courted by politician and poet Richard Monckton Milnes, 1st Baron Houghton, but she rejected him, convinced that marriage would interfere with her ability to follow her calling to nursing. When in Rome in 1847, recovering from a mental breakdown precipitated by a continuing crisis of her relationship with Milnes, she met Sidney Herbert, a brilliant politician who had been Secretary at War (1845 – 1846), a position he would hold again (1852 – 1854) during the Crimean War. Herbert was already married, but he and Nightingale were immediately attracted to each other and they became life-long close friends. Herbert was instrumental in facilitating her pioneering work in Crimea and in the field of nursing, and she became a key advisor to him in his political career. In 1851 she rejected Milnes' marriage proposal, against her mother's wishes.

Nightingale also had a strong and intimate relations with Benjamin Jowett, particularly about the time that she was considering leaving money in her will to establish a Chair in Applied Statistics at the University of Oxford. (For original documents an commentary see John Bibby HOTS: History of Teaching Statistics).

Nightingale's career in nursing began in earnest in 1851 when she received four months' training in Germany as a deaconess of Kaiserswerth. She undertook the training over strenuous family objections concerning the risks and social implications of such activity, and the Catholic foundations of the hospital. While at Kaiserswerth, she reported having her most important intense and compelling experience of her divine calling.

On August 12, 1853, Nightingale took a post of superintendent at the Institute for the Care of Sick Gentlewomen in Upper Harley Street, London, a position she held until October 1854. Her father had given her an annual income of £500 (roughly $50,000 in present terms) that allowed her to live comfortably and to pursue her career.

 

Contributions to statistics
Florence Nightingale had exhibited a gift for mathematics from an early age and excelled in the subject under the tutorship of her father. She had a special interest in statistics, a field in which her father was an expert, and was a pioneer in the nascent field of epidemiology. She made extensive use of statistical analysis in the compilation, analysis and presentation of statistics on medical care and public health.

During the Crimean War, Nightingale invented a diagram she called the coxcomb or polar area chart—equivalent to a modern circular histogram or rose diagram —to illustrate seasonal sources of patient mortality in the military field hospital she managed. These were essentially the first contributions to circular statistics. She made extensive use of the coxcomb to present reports on the nature and magnitude of the conditions of medical care in the Crimean War to Members of Parliament and civil servants who would have been unlikely to read or understand traditional statistical reports. As such, she was a pioneer in the visual presentation of information, also called Information graphics, and has earned high respect in the field of information ecology. In her later life Nightingale made a comprehensive statistical study of sanitation in Indian rural life and was the leading figure in the introduction of improved medical care and public health service in India. In 1858 Nightingale was elected the first female member of the Royal Statistical Society and she later became an honorary member of the American Statistical Association.


Legacy and memory

A young Florence NightingaleFlorence Nightingale's lasting contribution has been her role in founding the nursing profession. She set a shining example for nurses everywhere of compassion, commitment to patient care, and diligent and thoughtful hospital administration.

In many ways she was extremely 'modern' in her attitude to health managament - especially in her attitude to outcomes and statistical measurement.

The work of the Nightingale School of Nursing continues today. There is a Florence Nightingale Museum in London and another museum devoted to her at her family home, Claydon House. The International Nurses Day is celebrated on her birthday each year.

Several churches in the Anglican Communion commemorate Nightingale with a feast day on their liturgical calendars.

The airline KLM has named one of their MD-11s in her memory.[1]

Three hospitals in Istanbul are named after Nightingale: F. N. Hastanesi in Şişli, (this is the biggest private hospital in Turkey), Metropolitan F.N. Hastanesi in Gayrettepe, and Avrupa F.N. Hastanesi in Mecidiyeköy, all belonging to the Turkish Cardiology Foundation. [2]

During the Vietnam War, Nightingale inspired many US Army nurses, sparking a renewal of interest in her life and work. Her admirers include Country Joe of Country Joe and the Fish, who has assembled an extensive web site in her honor.

The Agostino Gemelli Medical Centre in Rome, the first university-based hospital in Italy and one of its most respected medical centers, honored Nightingale's contribution to the nursing profession by giving the name "Bedside Florence" to a wireless computer system it has developed to assist nursing.

Nightingale Corona, on the surface of Venus is named after her.