Florence Nightingale was born in Florence on 12 May 1820, a date commemorated each year with International Nurses Day. To mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of the illustrious nurse, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has designated 2020 as the International Year of the Nurse. This tribute to a woman who dedicated her life to caring for the most vulnerable members of society, understood the value and importance of professionalising nursing and helped to train several generations of nurses aims to draw attention to the role of nurses in providing healthcare, highlighting the issues and challenges currently facing the profession and emphasising the need to increase investment in the sector.
Born into a rich, influential English family, Florence Nightingale received a thorough education far superior to that available to most women at the time, which covered Latin, Greek, History, Philosophy, Mathematics, Modern Languages and Music. The vast knowledge which she acquired, along with her natural intelligence and charisma, provided the basis for the work she undertook throughout her life and for her legacy to humankind as the founder of modern nursing.
Despite opposition from her parents, she pursued what she believed to be her vocation as a nurse without hesitation, overcoming the legal and social barriers constraining women at that time if they wished to exercise a profession independently.
In 1851, she received training in nursing at the hospital in Kaiserswerth before visiting Paris in 1853, where she discovered the work of the Sisters of Mercy and grasped the importance of hospital architecture. Upon her return to London, she was appointed superintendent at the Institute for the Care of Sick Gentlewomen, offering her an opportunity to apply her knowledge. Yet it was during the Crimean War (1853-1856) that Florence was able to demonstrate her excellent leadership skills and incredible determination; throughout this time, she acquired the practical knowledge necessary to drive hospital reform and the reorganisation of healthcare services in the second half of the 19th century. Her work with soldiers during the war was rewarded with a medal from Queen Victoria.
The lamp that she carried as she kept watch over the wounded prompted her to become known as the “Lady with the Lamp”. Florence’s lantern became the emblem of nursing, symbolising not only hope for soldiers wounded in the Crimean War but also the knowledge required to exercise the profession.
She succeeded in demonstrating the importance of training and founded the Nursing School at Saint Thomas Hospital in 1860, believed to be the first professional nursing school in the world. Her vision of nursing focused on prevention and the patient, rather than on the illness and cure as was prevalent at that time; she believed in the importance of patients’ surroundings, lighting and food in their treatment, among many other aspects that had previously been overlooked.
Throughout her life, Florence Nightingale wrote 15 to 20,000 letters and around 200 publications, including books, reports and pamphlets, which set out her beliefs, observations and desire for change in medical care. She was one of the first ever female biostatisticians and was the first woman to be admitted to the Royal Statistical Society in 1860 due to the quality of her work during the Crimean War; in 1907, she was the first woman to receive the Order of Merit in the United Kingdom, an award issued in recognition of eminent service in the armed forces or progress in art, literature and science.
As well as making a significant impact on health and the organisation of hospital services around the world at the time, her work provided the foundations for the professionalisation of contemporary nursing. The moral values that underpinned her vision of nursing, as well as the scientific knowledge that she produced, played a key role in changing the image of nursing in society. Nowadays, it is viewed as a respectable profession exercised byhighly qualified professionals with extensive human and scientific skills who are an indispensable part of a modern healthcare system.
Florence Nightingale died at the age of 90 in London on 13 August 1910.
As we commemorate the anniversary of her birth, it is clear that nursing, as a discipline grounded in research and shaped by a people-focused vision, is the most appropriate, dynamic tribute to the memory of Florence Nightingale.
Gabinete História e Memórias (GHM) Escola Superior de Enfermagem do Porto (ESEP)
