Florence Nightingale went to Turkey, and worked at the bedside of injured soldiers in a hospital. She advocated for change in the delivery of care. She implemented basic things such as clean linen, and cleaning equipment. Because of this, the infection rates and mortality rates in the hospital decreased dramatically in the first 6 months she was there. Relatively basic changes made a huge impact- who would have thought?
Are things really so different today? Florence Nightingale made her dramatic changes in 1854. Today issues and challenges surrounding infection control are around proper hand-washing on the part of medical staff. This is not a new idea, and yet is still important today. Granted, things have certainly changed significantly since Florence went into practice. We have seen the education criteria change for nursing over the years. Once a 2 year program, now a 4 year degree. The changes have been dramatic even since the year 2000. The government of Canada maintains statistical data that shows the trend in nursing is for higher levels of education, even at the masters and Phd level.
Those early days discussed little of ongoing education for the bedside nurses. Mention is made in literature that Florence Nightingale moved to more of an administrative role later in her practice. She realized that change within the profession requires assistance from others. She gained support from the doctors, as well as government to support the growth of the profession. Her passion for caring for people remained. She was known to walk the halls at night of the hospital, checking on the young men who benefited so deeply from her vision and passion. But for her, many would not be there. It is from these nightly walks that she is known as The lady with the lamp.
To answer the question in the title, my opinion is yes, and no. Has it evolved and moved forward? Absolutely. Today we do things that would have only been a dream for those in 1854. Our standards have evolved, and our practice has been enhanced. The original basic components of clean linen, clean environments, but most importantly compassion and caring, the need to feel as though our time has truly made a difference in the life of a person, this has not changed. It is a challenge in our busy workplaces, but we all aspire for that brief moment in time when we know with our hearts that we were right where we were suppose to be. Providing caring, understanding and compassion for someone who just needs to be acknowledged. That is still the heartbeat of nursing, and has not changed in the least since 1854.
