Florence Nightingale Contribution To Nursing Essay

The Contribution of Florence Nightingale to Nursing Practice
Degie Gelaw
American Sentinel University
The Contribution of Florence Nightingale to Nursing Practice
Though a form of caring existed since the creation of human beings, the image merely consisted of a form of health promotion or health maintenance (Stanley & Sharret, 2010). Florence Nightingale, a pioneer, who took advantage of the contributions women made in society in promoting health and caring aimed to address that caring is something more substantial and based on scientific knowledge and evidence than just simply a given task. The ideas and the care practice approach Nightingale created is the foundation of the nursing profession and continues to influence modern day nursing.

Her work on environment modification was proven to have improved the hospital mortality rate from 32 % to 2 % in six months indicating the empirical precision of the model (Winkelestein, 2009). Nightingale defined health as the ability to use one’s power well and to be well and believed health is affected by nature stating “nature alone could cure disease” (Butts & Rich, 2015, p. 381). The other element of Nightingale’s model of care was nursing, which was viewed as caring that fostered health and teaching to ensure health promotion for those who are sick and those who are well (Butts & Rich, 2015). The derivable consequence of Nightingale’s model is corroborated by the continued importance of scientific knowledge and critical thinking Florence Nightingale set out that still dictates the practice of nursing in the 21st

Born in 1820 in Florence, Italy Nightingale, had all the privileges to become part of the aristocratic society, but chose to serve the disadvantaged and the poor (Butts & Rich, 2015). Florence Nightingale was reported to be “a strong willed and clear thinking individual who was persistently driven to achieve her goals in life (Stanley & Sherratt, 2010). Unlike many Victorian women, she had found a singleness of purpose and in spite of family and social opposition, sought to promote herself into a career as a social reformer” (Stanley & Sherratt, 2010, p.