Florence Nightingale's Influence In Nursing

The success of today’s nurses cannot be fully appreciated until history is taken into consideration. There have been enormous changes in the role of the nursing profession and the healthcare system. A significant amount of this success can be credited to a woman named Florence Nightingale. Going against the wishes of her family, Nightingale followed her calling to the nursing field and had major influence that helped society show more respect to the vocation than ever before. One of these changes includes the influence of education on nurses. Nightingale was passionate about improving healthcare and education was important to change the way people were cared for. After her work overseas in the military, Nightingale changed the previous state

Most nurses consist mostly of prostitutes, often drunk, with no intelligence or education. These nurses had no formal education because there were no organized programs until the later 1800’s. In 1877, a woman observes that the nurses have “little or no education. Few of them had even an elementary knowledge of nursing. Patients were not nursed; they were attended to” in St. Bartholomew’s hospital (Leavesley, 2010, para, 23). The increase in education did not really have an effect in the first decade, but had more influence in the second decade. Nightingale knew that nursing training was a new experiment and would take time before there was major influence (Attewell, 1998). This lack of education causes a chaotic and unsafe environment for patients. These nurses are in need of order and regulation which is not in effect before the help of Florence Nightingale. A surgeon by the name of John Flint South stated that nurses did not need more qualifications than a housemaid. Nightingale’s efforts for education received much opposition because of views like South’s (Attewell, 1998). Nevertheless, if Nightingale had not been faithful to her ambitions, nurses would not have the education they would have

Her determination for the training of nurses helps to save so many lives. Education brings intelligence and order for the nurses and better care for the patients. The training of the nurses made it easier for hospitals to hire nurses of higher capabilities. These trained nurses were in turn able to start their own schools. Nightingale’s strive for education had a ripple effect on the culture of nursing. Slowly more and more nurses have become educated. Nurses in today’s society are very well-educated, intelligent individuals. While there has been an incredible increase in respect from society since Nightingale, there are still sometimes negative connotations from media towards