Florence Nightingale

Florence Nightingale

Nursing

• Before
• Nursing not a respectable job for women
• Often old women
• No official training
• Reputation for drunk
• After
• Trained
• Became more respectable
• More central role in caring for patients

Florence Nightingale's Work

• She attended the first Nurses training school in Kaiserworth hospital, Germany
• She was asked to lead a team of nurses in Scutari during the Crimean War (1854-1856)
• She never believed in the Germ Theory - she thought miasma caused disease
• Emphasised hygiene, fresh air, space, good supplies and training for nurses
• She lowered the death rate from 42% to 2%
• She gave a report to the UK government who saw importance of her work and set up training schools for nursing and midwives
• She published books on nursing and hospital organisation which were spread all around
• Public pressure led to infirmaries being set up for the poorest in society
• Specialist hospitals - like asylums or fever houses for infectious disease- developed

First UK Training Hospital

• When Florence returned from the Crimean War, she found a fund had been set up in her honour. This was due to the reports she gave the government on her work and their realisation of the importance her work had.
• This fund contained a large sum of money. As a result, she used it to set up the first nurses teaching hospital in London in 1859. This helped train nurses and make it a more professional job with more respect.