Florence Nightingale Research Paper

Before the existence of the Great War, America had fought in previous wars. In the years before the Great War nursing was not even a word for the women who had helped with the aid of fallen soldiers. Florence Nightingale, who helped in establishing nursing as a career used her efforts in organizing an emergency nursing service (Dahlman 2). Nightingale started off at first with forty women, some of whom were Sisters of Religious Nursing Orders and others hospital-taught women of the old school, not trained in the modern way, but experienced (Dahlman 3). Florence Nightingale founded the Nightingale Training School for Nurses at St. Thomas’ Hospital which was the parent of the modern system of nursing. From her, therefore, we may well date the story of nursing service of the American Red Cross (Dahlman 4).

No Time For Fear: Voices of American Military Nurses in World War II by Diane Burke Fessler is a collection of personal narratives and oral histories that she bound together in order to provide “an important counterpoint to the strategy and planning of warfare so often chronicled by the male warrior”. She believes there is a “serious lack of recognition of nurses who were overseas with the soldiers, close to fighting, and caring for the wounded men”, so her goal for this collection is that the nurses who volunteered to join the Army and Navy in the 1940s will have their stories “recognized as an important part of that war’s strategy” because “American troops were not sent to battle in World War II without plans for medical care”. It was also

Garrett Avery Professor Markus Jones English 101 19 November 2015 Research Paper: Nurses on the Battlefield War is ruthless and no one is spared its wrath. Soldiers meet their end on the battlefield and in hospitals where nurses must wage their own war. We all know about the nurses in hospitals and local clinics, but what about the nurses who went to war back then and go to battle now with soldiers. Today they may be called combat medics or relief personnel. Without medical staff in wars and battles, we would lose a lot more troops to injuries obtained in combat.

During World War 1 the need for nurses was crucial. Nurses were the key to dealing with the vast amount of soldiers injured, and the elaborate care they required. Because the need for nurses was vital many posters were created to persuade women to fill the nursing positions. These posters strived to get women to join the military forces, appealing to their emotions, as well as their sense of responsibility. Nurses not only healed and cared for the solders, but they also provided emotional support.

During the early years of the Civil War, medical care for the troops was rudimentary, and thousands of soldiers died from infections and disease in army hospitals. In response, the world’s first professional nursing service was created by American hero Clara Barton. Born in Massachusetts in 1821, Barton was a humble clerk who transferred to the Army Quartermaster’s Department in 1862, grew dedicated to hospital work, and became a beloved and skilled nurse. Nicknamed “The Angel of the Battlefield”, Barton was the most famous women in the

Nursing was even harder for women whose skin color did not favor them at the time, due to racism. A great example was Mary Seacole, a woman with a great determination to cure the sick and tend to the injured. After the many letters sent to Florence Nightingale, Mary Seacole receive a letter denying her petition to be part of her team of nurses (Carnegie, 1995). This could have been a setback for an ordinary person, but it did not stop well-determined Mary Seacole, she was everything but ordinary. Her persistence to serve those in need of medical care let her to travel more than 3000 miles to Crimea. With limited resources, she bought and opened a lodging house, in which she took care of the wounded soldiers (Carnegie, 1995). Long after the war was over, she received recognition for taking care of the wounded.

During the Crimean war, both Mary Seacole and Florence Nightingale showed aspects of being angels. The word ‘angel’ suggests a heavenly person who is attentive to the soldiers’ needs, and ‘mercy’ means showing kindness and forgiveness, and the ‘angel of mercy’ basically suggests a compassionated and kind-hearted person who empathizes and helps soldiers in need. Although Nightingale had showed the aspects of being an “angel of mercy”, the amount of work and commitment Seacole had put in outweighs Nightingale’s; therefore I believe Mary Seacole deserves the title of the real “angel of mercy”.

1854 to 1856 there was a terrible war being fought by Russia against France, England and Turkey. There was no war in Europe for quite a while, so people seemed to have forgotten soldiers require food and clothing. A great poet, Laureate, who was a great poet. Left a picture of the war in his poetry that he called. “The Charge of the light Brigade,” a wonderfully written poem. The war left soldiers very wounded and they had no one to take care of them, while they were far away from home. Florence Nightingale attempted to write a letter to the war of Department, but at the same time the War Department wrote a letter to her, stating that she was the women for the job, to take this great task. Florence Nightingale quickly accepted the task

Florence Nightingale was a true pioneer of the nursing profession and her innovative, philosophies and pioneering methodologies in the care of patients have carried on today making nursing a revered, credible, and compassionate profession for both women and men to work in. In her observations, Florence Nightingale noted that health care should do no harm to the patients but what she observed in the hospital conditions in the Crimean war was causing harm and taking the lives of injured soldiers. The wards Nightingale observed were overcrowded and patients were being housed in unsanitary conditions (Adler & Pouwels, 2018). Patients were covered in soiled rags of dried blood and excrement, the water supply was contaminated, the food was inedible

During the Crimean War, Florence Nightingale is often remembered “as the “lady with the lamp”, whom she cared for soldiers around the clock (McEwen, M. & Wills, E.M, 2014). Nightingale believed unsanitary environment factors negatively impacted soldiers’ physical needs were more than likely the common cause death

More men started to become sick, their wounds were starting to get infected, and the doctors didn’t know what to do so they asked for Florence’s help. Florence bought supplies, beds, and blankets for the men. She cleaned the dirty floors and walls. Florence always offered care to anyone who needed it. In 1860, Florence wrote 2 important medical books. The first book is Notes on Hospitals which is about building clean hospitals. The second book is Notes on nursing which explains about diseases and proper nursing care. Florence believed nurses needed better training to work in hospitals. In 1860, she started a school called the Nightingale Training School. The students there learned about nursing. The students at the Nightingale school trained for 1 year. In 1861, she became very sick. People think that she had chronic fatigue syndrome. It gets caused by an infection or stress. Florence worked for 16-24 hours a day in the Crimean War and treated many infections. Even if Florence was sick she kept on working. She improved the conditions in British government’s hospitals. In 1861, the U.S army asked for her advice about adding an army

She would go check on soldiers at all hours of the night going through the dark halls carrying a lamp. The soldiers eventually started giving her nicknames like “ The Lady with the Lamp” and “The Angel of the Crimean”. Florence advised the army on sanitary conditions in India during and after the Indian Mutiny in 1857. This led to the establishment of a Sanitary Department within the Indian government. Her reports and testimony to others on sanitary conditions of the army led to a lot of improvements that also led to opening an army medical college in 1861. Florence also intended to write a book to help others on practicing how to become a nurse and how nursing can be used in future preferences. Aside from all of that Florence helped establish many nursing organizations throughout her whole life. Doing what she did for others she won awards for the work that she did. In the 1870’s, she mentored Linda Richards, the first professionally trained American nurse, who established nurse training programs in the U.S. and Japan. In late 1954’s, Nightingale Received a letter from the secretary of War Sidney Herbert, asking for her to organize a corps of nurses to aid to the sick and fallen soldiers. She gathered 34 nurses and sailed with them to Crimea a few days after.

War was a major influence on the development of the nursing profession. The Crimean war, which began in 1854, saw Florence Nightingale responding to the need for nurses to attend to the wounded soldiers. She drew attention to the need for change in nursing. She wrote a paper called “Notes on Nursing,” which showed the value of education in nursing theory and practice. This led to the first nurse training school to be established (Allan, 2013).

Nightingale’s phenomenal nursing career truly began to arise during the Crimean War in turkey in October 1854 (Cook, 1913.) Nightingale was placed on a military post that was infested with pests (Cook, 1913.) It was Nightingale’s goal to improve the

Florence Nightingale, a well-educated nurse, was recruited along with 38 other nurses for service in a hospital called Scutari during the Crimean War in 1854 . It was Nightingale's approaches to nursing that produced amazing results. Florence Nightingale was responsible for crucial changes in hospital protocol, a new view on the capabilities and potential of women, and the creation of a model of standards that all future nurses could aspire towards.