Notes on Nursing: And Other Writings

No one knows if Florence Nightingale deliberately set out to become a nursing champion, but it is clear that the 1859 publication of her book Notes on Nursing: What It Is, And What It Is Not secured her place in nursing history. By the author's own admission, the work was not written as a training manual for nurses.

Yet in many ways, this classic book, which was a best seller when issued and has been continuously in print since it was published 150 years ago, defines the precepts that became the prototype for contemporary nursing practice, provides a compelling historical perspective on the evolution of healthcare delivery, and provides an intimate glimpse into the Victorian Age. Although nurses no longer empty chamber pots, open chimney flues, or worry about their crinoline skirts catching fire, they may be interested to find among Nightingale's writings such modern-day concepts as the mind-body connection, plant therapy, and pet therapy.

About the Author
Born in 1820 in Florence, Italy, to a wealthy aristocratic family, Florence Nightingale seemed an unlikely candidate for a social reformer and nursing advocate. She was a sickly child who showed an insatiable intellectual curiosity at an early age and a restless spirit that was ill suited to the society life for which she was reared. Uncharacteristically for the times, she received a formal education from her father and chose an occupation common for women of the lower classes.

Florence Nightingale, history's most notable nurse, earned her fame during the Crimean War. Nightingale led a group of three dozen nurses to Constantinople to serve in British military field hospitals, where female nurses had previously been forbidden. She convinced army officials to change terrible conditions in the hospitals, thus earning the gratitude of soldiers--and celebrity in her native England. When the war ended in 1856, she returned to London and continued her reform campaign. Her outspoken Notes on Matters Affecting the Health, Efficiency and Hospital Administration of the British Army (1857) and Notes on Hospitals (1859) helped create changes in hygiene and overall treatment of patients. She also founded the groundbreaking Nightingale Training School for nurses, and in later years published dozens of books and pamphlets on public health. Nightingale was awarded the Royal Red Cross by Queen Victoria in 1883, and in 1907 became the first woman to receive the Order of Merit.