Florence Nightingale Essay

Words: 1492
Pages: 6

Florence Nightingale was a legend in her lifetime and was one of the greatest pioneer's in nursing. She lived ninety years and accomplished many great things for the field of nursing. Her descriptions of nursing, health, environment, and humankind are remarkable and still true to this day. Nightingale reformed nursing and changed the way nursing was viewed. Some of the issues during Nightingale's time, the 1800's, we still face today. Nightingale not only impacted nursing in the 1800's, but also still has an effect on nursing today. We do not need a new role model and icon for nursing because Nightingale changed the nursing profession for the better and that should never be forgotten. Nightingale was born on May 12, 1820 in …show more content…
Giving a patient a quiet room to reside in, a clean bed to sleep in, clean clothes, and adequate nutrition can make a big difference in their health status. Nightingale realized in the Crimean war that patients needed good nutrition, clean water, psychological support, care, clean beds, and clean clothes. Third, person or humankind is discussed. Person or humankind is described as the individual receiving care (Selanders, 1998). Nurses also dealt with the well being of a family, because the focus on individuals and families improved health. Talking to the family of the patient helps the patient's family to deal with psychological needs; making it easier for them to care for their ill family member. Nightingale believed individuals had biological, psychological, social, and spiritual needs and the nurse must help care for those needs to insure wellness of an individual (Selanders). Finally, Nightingale viewed health as "not only to be well, but to be able to use well every power we have" (Selanders, 1998, p.255). She believed one should strive to be in the best possible health condition. Being healthy to her did not mean being disease free; it meant striving to be in the best feasible healthy state. Health is also to make a person as comfortable as possible when they are ill or have a disease. For example, if a patient is ill and bed ridden talk to them,