, also known as the Lady with the Lamp. Her life was passionate and committed to her profession, but at the same time very self-sacrificing, to the extent that she preferred public service rather than the personal satisfaction of starting a family of her own alongside her husband and children.
A tireless fighter for her own freedom and the opportunity to acquire knowledge, an opportunity that she was able to obtain by coming from a wealthy family, perhaps that is why she was able to obtain support from important people such as the Minister of War, of course, in the performance of her work her effort counted a lot. , efficiency and tenacity, at a time when discrimination against women prevailed, let’s not forget that part of their ideology is inherited by a father of liberal ideas for his time.
Biographical synthesis
Early years
He was born in Florence , Italy on May 12 , 1820 ; and in honor of the city where she was born, her parents baptize her with the name of Florence Nightingale, an English word that means nightingale. Florence grew up as the daughter of a wealthy English family, therefore she lived surrounded by luxury and comfort. In 1837, when Florence was 17 years old, she began to visit the homes of poor and sick people, trying to help them mitigate their sorrows, this behavior was not well seen by her parents, because Florence preferred to visit the sick and unprotected than to go to parties and society meetings.
Florence’s character and vocation could be considered eccentric for the customs of the time, but perhaps this behavior is due to the convictions and ideologies of her parents; for example: her father Sir William was strongly involved in the anti-slavery movement, likewise, he was a faithful believer that women especially their daughters should have a good education; For this reason Florence and her sister learned Latin, Greek, history, and mathematics, with their father and aunt as teachers.
Student of mathematics
It is mainly in the field of mathematics where Florence makes great advances that would lead her to make important contributions in the field of the clinic, at that time women were reserved only for housework, so she dares to beg her parents to be allowed to study math instead of repetitive work and squad practice; After great emotional battles, he managed to get his father to assign him math tutors, including JJ Silvestre .
However, according to the customs of the time, her mother Fanny was worried about finding a good husband for her daughters, despising the knowledge acquired by Florence. She had the firm intention of marrying her daughter, arguing: “What use would mathematics have for a married woman?” For this reason, she was outraged every time Florence rejected the proposed candidates and her strong penchant for public service.
Thus, between the opposition of his parents and his own vocation, 7 long years passed during which he missed the opportunity to marry and start a home. In this regard, he would say when rejecting one of his suitors Richard Moncton Milnes :
I have a moral and active nature, which requires satisfaction and that I would not find if I spent my life in social commitments and organizing domestic things.
Before starting nursing, Florence worked as a children’s tutor in mathematics, developing lesson plans that included problems from the daily life of the children she taught. His teaching method was based on questioning, analysis and drawing conclusions.
Nursing vocation
Upon reaching 23 years of age, she discovered her true vocation, communicating to her parents her desire to become a nurse, faced with her desire, she encountered strong opposition, because this profession was not well regarded in society and was associated with working-class women. .
By convincing her parents that she was not going to give up on her attempt to become a nurse; her father then married to another woman, enrolled her in the best schools not only in England , but in various countries, for which she began her studies at the Institute of Saint Vincent de Paul in Alexandria , Egypt ; to continue at the Institute for Protestant Deaconesses in Kaiserswerth , Germany .
While she was a nurse, she had the opportunity to visit different hospitals in Italy and Egypt , observing the differences and needs that existed in hospitals, making notes that would lead her to write her books Hospital Notes and Nursing Notes, both published books. until 1859 , with the help of some friends from TIMES; Furthermore, these books set the tone for modern nursing.
In 1852 she got a job as Administrator in a small sanitarium for disabled ladies on Harley Street in London, England; at that time he was able to demonstrate his efficiency and capacity by transforming this small sanatorium into one of the best hospitals in England.
In 1854 the Franco-Russian War broke out in the Crimea . After hearing news of the poor sanitary conditions in Üsküdar Hospital, she sent a letter to the British secretary of war offering her services as a volunteer. Upon receiving an affirmative answer, she undertook the trip accompanied by 38 nurses to the battle front. Upon reaching the Crimea they were able to verify the deplorable state in which the hospital was, which was nothing more than galleys with piled-up cots and zero cleaning, with bad food and almost no medicine.
Despite having few nurses, they came to care for more than 5,000 wounded. Faced with such a situation, he wrote to the secretary of war to request his support, in this way he was able to fix the hospital and with his example and ability he recruited a whole army of volunteer nurses, considerably lowering the mortality rate among the sick and wounded. At the end of the war in 1856 she returned to London where she was received with a thousand honors; However, she rejected the award as a national hero, saying:
I’ve just done my duty as a human being.
In 1860 with a fund collected as a tribute to her services in the Crimea, she founded the Nightingale School and Home for Nurses at St. Thomas Hospital in London, the inauguration of this school marks the beginning of professional training in the field of nursing; Thanks to his efforts, nursing has been a highly educated medical profession with important responsibilities.
Final years
Despite her dynamism and enthusiasm, Florence knew the rigors of disease, in 1872 she retired from active service; in 1895 she was blind and later lost other faculties, to the extent that she received full-time care, being completely disabled she lived another 15 years; During this time, in 1908 , she was awarded the Medal of Merit, an honor rarely bestowed on a woman. Day 13 of August of 1910 dies Florence at the age of 90 years.
Contributions
Health
His greatest contribution is undoubtedly the dignity of the nursing profession and the training of nurses with high academic degrees and medical responsibility; as well as the first statistical studies carried out in hospitals, which, as we now know, are of great importance for clinical and diagnostic studies carried out by doctors.
However, and according to the information gathered, it is revealed that she greatly underestimated the work carried out by the first female doctors, considering that the profession of the doctor should be solely and exclusively male; It is for this reason that the few female doctors of that time received very little support from her, being able to observe here a discrimination of women by the woman herself, a situation that still persists in many work environments today.
One of the great contributions he made to the organization of work in health was the development of the hospital statistics model formula, so that hospitals could collect reliable statistics on birth, morbidity and their causes; For this he took advantage of his knowledge in mathematics, even inventing a system of logarithms; main basis of the statistical study that serves to numerically represent a social phenomenon, which could be measured and analyzed, providing an organizational framework to control, learn and thereby improve surgical and hospital practice. In addition to this, he invented the system of graphical representation of data called the Polar Area diagram, very similar to the graphical representation that we know today as pie. His book Hospital Notes it became the textbook for nurses translated into many languages.
Feminist movement
She can probably be considered one of the promoters of the feminist movement by questioning the role of women, raising the need for women to educate themselves:
Women are not supposed to have a sufficiently important occupation not to be interrupted; they have become accustomed to regard intellectual pursuit as a selfish pastime, and it is their duty to leave it to tend to someone smaller than themselves.
Recognition
In recognition and tribute to their work, the Florence Nightingale Medal was instituted in 1912 , which is awarded to graduates or nursing assistants around the world, at the proposal of the National Committees of the Red Cross or Red Crescent and approved by the International Committee of the
Red Cross.
It is the highest international distinction given to a person in nursing and is generally awarded as recognition of the exceptional courage and dedication needed to care for victims of conflict or natural disaster .