Florence Nightingale, born into a wealthy British family in 1820, is known as the founder of modern nursing. While she felt “called by God” to become a nurse, her training and experience as a nurse was not based a spiritual form of medicine, but rather increasing biomedical and direct observation based. Unlike most nurses at the time, Nightingale gained her knowledge of nursing through both hands-on experience and a (short) formal education: she enrolled as a nursing student at the Lutheran Hospital of Pastor Fliedner in Germany and ministered care to the ill people in the areas neighboring her family’s estate. In European society during the 19th century, the medical system was becoming increasingly focused on advancing the biomedical-based,
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The decaying organic matter that the patients were exposed to (maggots and human waste in their beds) caused them to become even more sick because it poisoned the air they were breathing. She so firmly believed that dirty air was a large cause in poor health that hospitals should be redesigned as to provide for more space and better ventilation, as to allow for fresher air for the patients. Florence Nightingale appears to at least partially reject the idea of Germ Theory, arguing that contagion and infection are misused and incorrect ideas: infections were not passed between individuals but would affect individuals within the area that gave rise to “dirty” air and disease would proliferate without any physical contact. According to her writing in Notes of Hospitals, infection acts through the air, “point the air breathed by individuals and there is infection” (Nightingale, Notes on Hospitals) and the idea of contagion has too many absurdities to be true. She did accept the scientific idea of viruses, supporting inoculation and accepting the existence of viruses, but did not believe that these diseases were contagions. With proper sanitary reform, not only would patients have a better chance to heal from whatever medical ailment they may suffer from, but would prevent the development of new issues. The importance of sanitary conditions was also stressed, as well as warmth, clean air, light in rooms, and a nutritious
The decaying organic matter that the patients were exposed to (maggots and human waste in their beds) caused them to become even more sick because it poisoned the air they were breathing. She so firmly believed that dirty air was a large cause in poor health that hospitals should be redesigned as to provide for more space and better ventilation, as to allow for fresher air for the patients. Florence Nightingale appears to at least partially reject the idea of Germ Theory, arguing that contagion and infection are misused and incorrect ideas: infections were not passed between individuals but would affect individuals within the area that gave rise to “dirty” air and disease would proliferate without any physical contact. According to her writing in Notes of Hospitals, infection acts through the air, “point the air breathed by individuals and there is infection” (Nightingale, Notes on Hospitals) and the idea of contagion has too many absurdities to be true. She did accept the scientific idea of viruses, supporting inoculation and accepting the existence of viruses, but did not believe that these diseases were contagions. With proper sanitary reform, not only would patients have a better chance to heal from whatever medical ailment they may suffer from, but would prevent the development of new issues. The importance of sanitary conditions was also stressed, as well as warmth, clean air, light in rooms, and a nutritious