Florence Nightingale Research Paper

Florence Nightingale believed that Nursing was an art and a science in which certain individuals had to have the proper education and training in order to perform necessary actions. She mostly believed that nursing was a calling. A calling in which people needed to have a gift for the profession. She thought to believe that nursing was not something in which anyone could do; she believed that people had to have that calling to be a nurse. Florence Nightingale defined nursing as the, “ought to signify the proper use of fresh air, light, warmth, cleanliness, quiet, and the proper selection and administration of diet – all at the least expense of vital power to the patient”( Notes on nursing, 1992). Nursing for Florence Nightingale wasn’t just …show more content…
This is the foundation of her theory and most important thing when pertaining to the care for a patient. She thought to believe that a bad environment leads to health problems as she went on to state, “Poor or difficult environments led to poor health and disease” (Notes on nursing, 1992). The environment was something that needed to be controlled or altered in order to allow for nature to heal. Controlling the environment was her belief in order to keep people healthy. She supported the thought that a healthy society leads to healthy individuals, which is believed by many other theorists. The environment affects the person. The relationship between environment and human beings is another big theory in Nightingales thoughts. The person is thought by nightingale to have a direct relationship with the environment. Environment and person go hand and hand in Nightingales theory because they coincide with each other. Each one affects the other. Person is not touched on by Nightingale in much detail outside of the thought that it is in relationship with the environment. Her thought behind the relationship was the healthier the environment is, the healthier the individual will be, which many, including myself, believe to be …show more content…
Nightingale stated that nursing a patient back to health meant to, “Unmake what God had made disease” ( Notes on nursing, 1992). She believed that body had the ability to recuperate and undergo reparative process, which is the body repairing itself. Nightingale believed that the way to cure this disease was by controlling the environment and letting the laws of nature cure the illness. She believed there were five components of maintaining health; Pure air, pure water, cleanliness, light and efficient drainage. With these five elements being brought on by a nurse, Nightingale supported the idea that these were necessary in order to maintain healthy and also care for an ill