Florence Nightingale Case Study

The foundation of nursing practice is grounded in the use of nursing theories. It provides a framework for generating knowledge for furthering the nursing profession. Florence Nightingale, was instrumental in contributing to the modern profession of nursing. Her philosophical assumptions served as the core of her environmental theory.

These assumptions are natural laws; mankind can achieve perfection; nursing is a calling; nursing is an art and a science; nursing is achieved through environmental alteration; nursing requires a specific educational base; and nursing is distinct and separate from medicine. (Karim, 2015, p. 225)

The essence of the theory is a “healthy environment promotes patient recovery” (Asif Jetha, 2014, p. 32). Nightingale

The influence of Nightingale’s vision is thriving in the 21st century. Her legacy inspired the foundation of nursing, from direct patient care environment, administration, nursing education, and leadership to global initiatives. Based on Nightingale’s theory, the Nightingale Initiative for Global Health (Peck, Dossey, and Rushton, 2013) a major grassroots-to-global movement was created. Additionally, there is robust research. The nursing profession is profoundly impacted currently in the areas of infection control (Mitchell & Gardner, 2013), patient confidentiality (Idrees, 2014), evidence-based practice (Selanders & Crane, 2012), documentation (Arnone & Fitzsimons, 2014), leadership (Altimier, 2012), nursing education (Beck, 2010), and promoting alterations in the environment to improve patient outcomes (Asif Jetha, 2015; Bender & Feldman, 2015; Zborowsky,

Kleffel, (as cited in Bender & Feldman, 2015) thought Nightingale’s view of the environment was limited to “only the immediate situation of the patient and not the broader settings in which nursing practice and patient care occurred” (Bender & Feldman, 2015, p. 99). However, that could not be farther from the truth. In 1890, she wrote “Bad sanitary, bad architectural, and bad administrative arrangements often make it impossible to nurse. But the art of nursing ought to include such arrangements as alone make what I understand by nursing, possible” (Nightingale, 2005, p. 6). Nightingale clearly indicated her concern for the nurse tending to the patients. Jarrin (2012) defines the caring environment, which she concluded from Nightingale’s writings, as being shaped by internal and external variables for both the nurse and the