Happy 200th birthday, Florence!
Most people have heard of Florence Nightingale. The image is usually that of a woman in a long skirt and bonnet carrying a lamp while trudging through the battlefield littered with injured soldiers in the Crimean War.
But she was much, more than a mere source of comfort for the injured. As the late Paul Harvey would say, “now for the rest of the story.”
This has been declared the International Year of the Nurse and Midwife by the World Health Organization and International Council of Nurses and it’s not because nurses are playing a star role during the COVID-19 pandemic.
It’s the 200th birthday of Florence Nightingale, with the entire month of May devoted to celebrating the role and accomplishments of nurses. In the U.S., May 6-12 is traditionally declared National Nurses Week because Florence was born on May 6.
Florence Nightingale established the first nursing school and her stringent standards for professional nurses and emphasis on patient advocacy is outlined in The Nightingale Pledge — much like the Hippocratic Oath is for physicians. It is the backbone for nurses being consistently rated as the most trusted health professional.
The career of Florence began with many struggles. It might surprise you to know she was born into an extremely wealthy family. This was both blessing and curse.
In her social position, roles for women were chiefly needlework, being a gracious hostess, and being ladylike. Education was viewed as a waste of time for women because marrying well was the major goal. The very idea of women remaining single, pursuing a profession or position of leadership was simply “not done.” Two hundred years ago, nursing as an occupation was reserved for women of ill repute and for society’s outcasts.
Florence found the social conventions of her time miserable. She was completely depressed with idleness, ignorance and lack of useful pursuits.
She had opportunities for marriage, but viewed the role of a wife as too confining and declined all pro- posals. Her family’s multiple estates came complete with servants and no expectation to do work of any kind. Family wealth and connections enabled her to travel widely and mingle with the rich, famous and powerful.
Instead of reveling in her good fortune, she found being “useless and pampered” unbearable.
She had to fight her family and then the British government to gain approval to begin her legacy-making career. It began in the early 1850s when she convinced the British government to allow female nurses to work with the sick and wounded of the Crimean War.
It was during that time that she first demonstrated that good nursing care — and especially frequent hand washing — could save thousands of young lives.
At that time, soldiers were dying from extremely poor sanitation in the makeshift areas for the injured, close proximity to each other, lack of nutritious food and extremely poor hygienic practices by the few doctors and helpers.
Florence was not popular — most change agents are not. She was a keen observer and record keeper. She noticed how infections spread and meticulously noted patterns and wrote reports that her soldier officers found unnecessary and offensive.
The current mantra today from COVID-19 experts — frequent hand washing, social distancing, proper protective equipment and separation of infected individuals — began with Florence.
She had numerous battles with the officers in charge. Their pushback was twofold: she was a woman and she was making new and unwanted recommendations. The military officers did their best to get her fired on many occasions. She relentlessly wrote to her politically connected acquaintances for the help she needed.
She was also finally sent some volunteers to assist with her efforts. They were not met with a welcome mat. They were rigorously evaluated and often dismissed if they didn’t meet her exacting standards. From this group of volunteers, she established the first professional nursing school.
I have often heard individuals saying they want to be a nurse, but the requirements and difficulty of obtaining a degree are not understood very well. It is rigorous and not for the faint of heart. The ones now able to get into a program are the best and brightest. They are the future Florence Nightingales who will keep moving nursing forward.
And just as Florence needed to shed the restraints of the role of women of her time, nursing needs to shed the negative remnants of historically being a largely female occupation. That has routinely placed the profession in a supportive rather than leadership role. It has detrimentally affected our place at the healthcare policy table.
We need to keep fighting the system to gain prescriptive privileges and get free from the antiquated Georgia laws that require permission from the Board of Medicine to perform to the full capacity of our education.
Our current pandemic has focused on the critical role of nurses. I hope the public will help us get our current laws changed — particularly in areas with major health care provider shortages.
Sharon Baker, BSN, MN, CWHNP is the president and founder of Women’s Information Network Inc. She may be reached at 706506-2000 or by email at baker8483@comcast.net.