I am an American nurse turned journalist, and am writing an article for the Washinton Post about Florence Nightingale and her influence on contemporary nursing. In 1999, Unison, called for the ditching of Florence Nightingale as the symbol of nursing and replacing her with someone more in line with modern nursing.
I am curious for reactions to this. What do you think of Florence Nightingale? Do you agree with Unison? Think Nightingale's outdated?
If it helps, my 6 yr old did a whole unit on her in Yr 2 (that's first grade for yanks!) and visited the Florence Nightengale museum in london. -- Absolutely loved it. grossed out by the stories of Crimean war soldiers, understood new importance of hygiene etc.
Ol' florence was definitely a good way to impress on her how important nursing is! (esp. with mom about to re-train! :)
Mary Seacole was from Jamaica. She learned her nursing skills from her mother who had kept a boarding house for invalid soldiers. Mary heard of the collapse of the British nursing system in the Crimea and headed for London in 1845. She applied to the War Office to offer her services as a nurse, however she was turned down. She believed the reason to be colour prejudice.
Not discouraged she funded her own trip to the Crimea where she immediately set about tending to the sick and wounded. She set up her own store where she sold medicines and supplies. After the war she returned to England destitute and in ill health, the Times brought her condition to the attention of the public. She wrote her autobiography entitled 'The wonderful adventure of Mrs Seacole in many lands' She lived prosperously for the rest of her life and died on 14 May 1881. Her grave can be found at St May's Catholic Cemetery in Harrow Rd, London. If you are in the Area pay her a visit to ensure a real British Heroine is not forgotten.
I think the people who "don't support Florence" know very little about her. The more I have learned about her and her work, the more I have come to respect her.
The problem is: many people assume she is no longer relevant without really knowing all the facts. Perhaps students should spend a little more time learning about her and some of the other great nursing leaders of the past and the present. In many disciplines, studying the work of those who built the knowledge is a central part of becoming an expert in the discipline. By not honoring our past (and current) nursing scholars, we downplay the importance of their work -- resulting in a downplaying of the importance of nursing work and accomplishments in general.
just read this.........wondering what is the "Nightengale Oath"? i have heard some talk of American nurses taking an oath(!) when they graduate is that what it is??
just read this.........wondering what is the "Nightengale Oath"? i have heard some talk of American nurses taking an oath(!) when they graduate is that what it is??
Definatly did not take one in Ireland!!!:wink2:
The "Nightingale Pledge" is an pledge/oath intended to correspond to the Hippocratic Oath for physicians. It was written by a group of US nursing educators and named for Flo -- definitely not written by her!!! (Although a lot of people seem to assume that's the case.) There are several other threads here that discuss the pledge and include the actual language of the pledge. It's a v. common and popular feature of US nursing graduation/pinning ceremonies to have the students stand and recite the pledge in unison. A lot of us consider the original language of the pledge kinda creepy, demeaning, and (needless to say) not representative of current, modern nursing practice (e.g., it includes references to "living my life in purity" and "faithfully aiding the physician in his work"). Some "updated" versions of the pledge have been proposed and circulated, some of them pretty decent, but, somehow, the original, icky version just keeps hanging on ...
:)lol...........it is a bit outdated then:confused:. We did have a pinning ceromony which the rest of the university science deparment that shared our graduation cermony with us found strange!!
sanakruz, ADN
735 Posts
HMMMMM