As nurses, we all know Florence Nightingale, the pioneer in
nursing, the founder of nursing as a scientific profession that we value today,
the “lady with the lamp.” I venture to guess that if you are reading this and
you are not a nurse, you still have an idea of who I am talking about. If not,
in brief, Florence Nightingale is best known for her work with soldiers during
the Crimean war, the formalization of schools of nursing, and improving the
care and standards of hospitals. Every year around her birthday on May 12th
(also my birthday), our country celebrates nurse with a whole week that
recognizes the profession of nursing.
This past week I thought of Florence during a clinical orientation
at one of our local hospitals, a nurse educator posed this question to my
students, “if you are walking by the room of a patient in isolation and you see
the patient is about to fall, what do you do? Let them fall, less risk the
possibility of coming in contact with the germs that they are being isolated
for? Or run in and help them? Or do you gown and glove up then go in?” All my
students said, “go in,” of course, but really, are there nurses out there that
would let a patient fall because of the risk of getting Clostridium Difficile
or Methi
cillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus? Isn’t it our job to heal and
protect the sick? Has nursing come to this?
The work of Florence Nightingale has had a huge effect on our
society, she touched everyone reading this. Her work created healthcare reform,
standards of care, improving care of patients by focusing on cleanliness,
nutrition, and psychological treatment. She contracted diseases that she would
help to eradicate. Yes, she contracted diseases while caring for the sick. I
know what Florence would do, she would run into that room and catch the
patient. I think if she knew that question even had to be asked of a nurse
today, she would be disappointed. What would you do? Thoughts?
You can learn more about Florence at the
link below.
References
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