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Historians praised Florence Nightingale on the 200th anniversary of her birth and said her legacy “has never been more relevant” amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Her core nursing values, which focused on maintaining good hygiene, washing hands regularly, and conducting evidence-based practices, have been widely echoed in recent months.
Nightingale was born on May 12, 1820, which is also commemorated as International Nurses Day.
He developed these habits during the Crimean War, where, along with a small group of nurses, he tended to soldiers’ wounds and worked to improve hospital conditions.
His data-driven work also helped shape modern nursing: he founded the nursing school at St Thomas Hospital in London, developed palliative care and midwifery, and shaped the redesign of hospitals across the UK and the health itself.
Kristin Buhnemann, deputy director of the Florence Nightingale Museum, told the PA news agency: “In terms of modern nursing, her legacy has never been so relevant as she pioneered sanitation, hygiene and had a monumental impact on the control of infections today.
“She focused primarily on improving nurses’ hygiene, advising them to wash their hands regularly. Prior to this, nurses did not change their uniforms or aprons, but continued to work with the same team, which she believed to be incredibly unhygienic. “
“We now see that this essential equipment is used correctly and thrown away after each use, because she was the first to identify the impact of health worker hygiene on patient mortality rates.”
Health leaders continue to use the concept of evidence-based healthcare, a theory that Nightingale was a pioneer and advocate and is currently being used by the World Health Organization (WHO) to track and trace patients with Covid-19.
Her passion for data made her the first female member of the Royal Statistical Society, while her invention of the coxcombe, an initial version of a pie chart, showed Queen Victoria and her government the connection between cleanliness and the rate of British soldiers mortality. , is being used today to combat the current pandemic.
Elsewhere, his compassion for nurses has also had an impact on modern practices and historians have drawn parallels to the current personal protective equipment crisis.
Ms Buhnemann said: “Her tireless campaign had an effect on modern hospital facilities, she was in constant communication with the government about the poor state of the facilities during the Crimean War.
“She came to find that the wounded soldiers were not being adequately cared for, as the work was being performed by overburdened medical personnel, who lacked the necessary equipment, while medicine was in short supply.
“Nightingale was forced to pay for supplies out of her own pocket, buying aprons and buckets for water, so there are clear parallels to the urgent need for PPE as today’s nurses fight the pandemic.
“Also during this period, she contracted brucellosis from unpasteurized dairy products, a debilitating disease that affected her for the rest of her life.
“So like today’s nurses, Nightingale risked her life to help others, and I think she would be incredibly proud of today’s healthcare workers.”
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