Notes on Nightingale: The Influence and Legacy of a Nursing Icon

by Sioban Nelson (Editor), Anne Marie Rafferty (Editor)

Overview

Florence Nightingale remains an inspiration to nurses around the world for her pioneering work treating wounded British soldiers during the Crimean War; authorship of Notes on Nursing, the foundational text for nursing practice; establishment of the world's first nursing school; and advocacy for the hygienic treatment of patients and sanitary design of hospitals. In Notes on Nightingale, nursing historians and scholars offer their valuable reflections on Nightingale and analysis of her role in the profession a century after her death on 13 August 1910 and 150 years since the Nightingale School of Nursing (now the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery at King's College, London) opened its doors to probationers at St Thomas' Hospital.

There is a great deal of controversy about Nightingale—opinions about her life and work range from blind worship to blanket denunciation. The question of Nightingale and her place in nursing history and in contemporary nursing discourse is a topic of continuing interest for nursing students, teachers, and professional associations. This book offers new scholarship on Nightingale's work in the Crimea and the British colonies and her connection to the emerging science of statistics, as well as valuable reevaluations of her evolving legacy and the surrounding myths, symbolism, and misconceptions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801476112
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	08/15/2010
Series:	The Culture and Politics of Health Care Work
Pages:	184
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Sioban Nelson is Dean and Professor at the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing at the University of Toronto. She is coeditor of The Complexities of Care: Nursing Reconsidered, also from Cornell. Anne Marie Rafferty is Dean of the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery, King's College, London. Rachel Verney is Visiting Associate at the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery.

Table of Contents

Foreword Rachel Verney vii

Introduction Sioban Nelson Anne Marie Rafferty 1

1 The Nightingale Imperative Sioban Nelson 9

2 Navigating the Political Straits in the Crimean War Carol Helmstadter 28

3 The Dream of Nursing the Empire Judith Godden 55

4 Rhetoric and Reality in America Joan E. Lynaugh 76

5 Mythologizing and De-mythologizing Lynn McDonald 91

6 The Passionate Statistician M. Eileen Magnello 115

7 An Icon and Iconoclast for Today Anne Marie Rafferty Rosemary Wall 130

Notes 143

Contributors 161

Index 165

What People are Saying About This

Rima D. Apple

In reexamining and reinterpreting the life and influence of Florence Nightingale, the authors of the thought-provoking essays in Notes on Nightingale demonstrate the continued power of Nightingale's work and image and, most critically, validate the significance of analyzing contemporary issues from a historical perspective.

Christine Hallett

Notes on Nightingale is an extraordinary achievement, bringing together some of the world's most eminent Nightingale scholars. It explodes myths, develops sophisticated lines of analysis, and reveals the full range of achievement of one of the world's most iconic figures. In doing so, it also provides a lens through which we might view that most elusive of modern arts: nursing.

Editorial Reviews

"Notes on Nightingale is an extraordinary achievement, bringing together some of the world's most eminent Nightingale scholars. It explodes myths, develops sophisticated lines of analysis, and reveals the full range of achievement of one of the world's most iconic figures. In doing so, it also provides a lens through which we might view that most elusive of modern arts: nursing."

--Christine Hallett, Director, the UK Centre for the History of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Manchester

"In reexamining and reinterpreting the life and influence of Florence Nightingale, the authors of the thought-provoking essays in Notes on Nightingale demonstrate the continued power of Nightingale's work and image and, most critically, validate the significance of analyzing contemporary issues from a historical perspective."

--Rima D. Apple, Vilas Life Cycle Professor Emerita, University of Wisconsin-Madison

From the Publisher

"In reexamining and reinterpreting the life and influence of Florence Nightingale, the authors of the thought-provoking essays in Notes on Nightingale demonstrate the continued power of Nightingale's work and image and, most critically, validate the significance of analyzing contemporary issues from a historical perspective."

Rima D. Apple

"Notes on Nightingale is an extraordinary achievement, bringing together some of the world's most eminent Nightingale scholars. It explodes myths, develops sophisticated lines of analysis, and reveals the full range of achievement of one of the world’s most iconic figures. In doing so, it also provides a lens through which we might view that most elusive of modern arts: nursing."

Christine Hallett