Journal:

Florence Nightingale is revered as the founder of modern nursing. Her substantial contributions
to health statistics are less well known. She first gained fame by leading a team of 38 nurses to
staff an overseas hospital of the British army during the Crimean War.1 Newspaper reports of
unsanitary conditions at the military hospital had aroused the public, and the Secretary of War
responded by appointing a team of nurses to address the situation. The Secretary was a friend of
Nightingale's and knew her leadership skills. Nightingale and her team arrived in Turkey in
November 1854. They found hospital conditions were far worse than reported. The wards were
vastly overcrowded, patients were covered with rags soiled with dried blood and excrement, the
water supply was contaminated, and the food inedible. Sewage discharged onto floors of wards
and dead animals rotted in the courtyards. According to Nightingale, the hospital case-fatality
rate during the first months after her arrival was 32%.2

Although Nightingale did not accept the concept of bacterial infection, she deplored crowding
and unsanitary conditions. She put her nurses to work sanitizing the wards and bathing and
clothing patients. Nightingale addressed the more basic problems of providing decent food and
water, ventilating the wards, and curbing rampant corruption that was decimating medical
supplies. She had to overcome an inept and hostile military bureaucracy, which she did in part by
paying for remediation from private sources, including her own funds. She also kept careful
statistics. Within 6 months, the hospital case fatality had dropped to 2%.

When Nightingale returned to London 3 years later, she was a national hero. However, within a
few more years she had become an invalid herself (suffering at age 40 from what may have been
chronic fatigue syndrome). Although she lived as a recluse for the next 50 years, she continued
to exert substantial influence on nursing and public health through letters, books, conference
presentations, and personal persuasion.3

She was skilled in mathematics and far ahead of her time in understanding the importance of
health data. She argued (unsuccessfully) that Parliament should extend the 1860 census to collect
data on sickness and disability, and she advocated for the creation of a Chair in Applied Statistics
at Oxford University. The Royal Statistical Society acknowledged her contributions to health
data by electing Florence Nightingale to membership—the first woman to be so honored—and
the American Statistical Association made her an Honorary Member.

Reference:

Winkelstein, W.Jr. (2009, March). Florence Nightingale Founder of Modern

Nursing and Hospital Epidemiology. EPIDEMIOLOGY JOURNAL, 2, 311.
doi: 10.1097/EDE.0b013e3181935ad6

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Florence_Nightingale__Founder_of_Modern_Nursing.25.aspx#:~:text=Florence%20Nightingale%20is
%20revered%20as,army%20during%20the%20Crimean%20War.
Reaction: Florence Nightingale is known as the founder of modern nursing. She
exemplified a considerable lot of the characteristics that were generally required
during this pandemic, like strength, sympathetic consideration, mental fortitude,
and a pledge to campaign for and impact change in the medical issue of minimized
populations. She showed to others that there is something else to find out with
regards to nursing besides a similar methodology. She showed medical attendants
that nursing can really help patients. Florence Nightingale played an important role
in present-day nursing.
1. What does JCAHO acronym mean?
- JCAHO stands for Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare
Organizations. The Joint Commission is a non-profit organization that was
founded in 1910.
2. Why is it important to study the history of health education?
- Health education contributes to the educational programs for our youth by
allowing individuals to learn the qualities, understanding, and capabilities needed
to live a full and fulfilling life. It is about learning to accept and see various points
of view on a subject. Health education aids personal development. It encourages
us, the students, to put in more effort.
It also enables others' well-being by teaching them how to improve
communication and allowing them to see various perspectives. Health education
explores recent concerns pertinent to us, teenagers, for example, sexuality and
connections, medication and liquor use, and how to construct versatility to oversee
change and unfortunate circumstances. Health education gives the establishment
pathways to the social and wellbeing sciences. And we, students, figure out how to
process data and foster abilities that can be utilized to make well-being advancing
move.