Florence Nightingale encountered the system of health in the medical world. In a world where nurses had a bad moral reputation, Nightingale transformed their career into a respectable and admirable job that not only saved lives, but helped the environment. The medical system that Nightingale worked to reform was not working towards a goal. The different parts, such as the cleanliness, amount of workers, and available tools, did not work together towards the goal of helping patients and saving lives. She worked with the system of medical attention in the military, and then expanded her horizons to everyday society. She reformed this system and played a key role into developing the success of the medical field today.
Nightingale recognized the world’s dire need for a transformation of its medical field. Her recognition started with military soldiers who were sick or wounded. There were reports of medical catastrophes with thousands of soldiers in critical medical condition. During her work in the military hospitals of Scutari, she witnessed ill soldiers lined up in cots stretching out over four miles. These hospitals were not clean; they were filled with dirty clothes, rats, fleas, and the smell of underground sewage. The bacteria in these facilities caused deaths from illness such as Cholera, typhus, and dysentery. Water was scarce, and the hospitals lacked basic medical supplies. All of these factors and different pieces of the system worked against each other, and against the goal of providing the best healthcare for the sick and wounded.
Since the system of military health had been the same for years, she attempted to change society’s understanding of the problem by informing them. She produced and printed her own book called Notes on Matters Affecting the Health, Efficiency and Hospital Administration of the British Army. In this book, she provided an analysis, using her own statistics, of the causes of death and sickness of military soldiers. She created diagrams and charts that she later presented to army officials and War Office. Also, in 1859, she published Notes on Hospitals. This work discussed hospitals and their flaws in depth, and it came to revolutionize the theory of hospital construction. Throughout her life, Nightingale wrote an estimated number of 12,000 books, letters, reports, and monographs. Her research and writing eventually came together to change society’s understanding of medical needs.
Nightingale went about changing the system by acting upon it. In Scutari, she convinced the War Office to send over women to act as nurses to save the thousands of men in need of medical treatment. She provided new and clean medical tools and supplies. She provided scrubbing brushes and made sure that the medical facilities were scrubbed clean, providing a suitable environment for patients. She washed the patients’ clothes. She built new kitchens, laundry rooms, and a warehouse for the new supplies. She also authorized construction for a new ward. She comforted patients, and established reading rooms and recreation rooms. Nightingale not only went above and beyond to provide a cleaner and safer environment, but she made the hospitals a comfortable environment to help the soldiers feel at home. Her actions to change the medical system in Scutari ultimately decreased the death rate from 43 percent to 2 percent. Nightingale was able to reform the parts of the system that were lacking by altering them towards the goal of providing the best care of the patients.
However, despite her success in changing the system, she encountered setbacks that seemed to get in the way of her accomplishing her goal. In the early development of her career, she received a marriage proposal. The man was smart, charming, and truly loved Nightingale. However, she declined his marriage proposal because she did not want to be distracted from her career. She wanted to be an independent woman who could focus on accomplishing her goals. Also, as her success grew, her failing health created a large problem in her plans to change the system. However, she tried not to allow her own health become a setback in helping others. After coming down with a case of Crimean fever during her efforts in the war, she was never able to fully recover from her illness. She often fainted and suffered from physical exhaustion. Even though she spent most of her time in bed, she did not let it stop her from working full-time with orders, visitors, and even writing books. In fact, most of her successful writing was completed in the time she spent bedridden from her disease.
Along with these setbacks came people who opposed of her changing the system. Among these opposers, were her parents. Nightingale’s father originally forbade her from becoming a nurse after hearing of their reputation for low moral standards. Nightingale fought with her parents for four years before they finally gave in and let her begin training to become a nurse. Also, the army surgeons at Scutari originally opposed her and her reformation of their hospitals. At first, they did not agree with her immediate relief efforts to bring women in to help with the cleaning and the patients. However, these surgeons gave in to her reform after the Battle of Inkerman when over 500 soldiers came to the hospital, all in need of different treatments.
However, although society forced Nightingale to deal with setbacks and opposers, she also had allies who supported her efforts to reform the system. The secretary of war, Sidney Herbert, was her political ally. At the start of her career, he asked her if she could take over the military hospitals in Scutari. After her success, she was welcomed back to England as a heroine, and was even interviewed by Queen Victoria. Also, Sidney Herbert persuaded the Royal Commissions to investigate the health in the military society. Although Nightingale was not allowed to directly help the Royal Commissions, Herbert’s support allowed her to guide their relief efforts.
After Florence Nightingale’s work, the new system of nurses and the medical field completely transformed. Nightingale put her knowledge and research into action to change the course of nursing for years to come. Today, nurses have a positive image; their career is admirable and professional. Hospitals take great care in keeping their facilities clean and sanitary, as to not spread the germs of others that are sick or wounded. The system works together for the common goal of keeping hospitals clean and safe for incoming patients and visitors, as well as helping patients to recover to good health. Military nurses work every day to help those soldiers in need of medical attention. In today’s economy, the medical field has become one of the only stable careers because the world will always be in need of doctors and nurses. Without Nightingale’s knowledge and efforts to reform the system, the medical industry would not be nearly as successful and life changing as it is today.
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