Today it is even difficult to imagine that even in the 19th century there was no such thing as nursing care in military hospitals. Actually, there was no profession of a highly qualified nurse. And this despite the fact that people who were engaged in the treatment of their own kind, mankind has known for many centuries.
Traditional family
The founder of the specialty of a qualified nurse was an Englishwoman Florence Nightingale. She was born in 1820 in Florence. Her parents gave her a name in honor of this beautiful Italian city. Nightingale in translation means "nightingale".
The family was deeply English - not only in origin, but also in the traditions that the Nightingales followed. Despite the fact that after the birth of the eldest daughter, the trip to Europe continued, the children in the family were brought up in accordance with the good old traditions. While the parents traveled around the Old World, after Florence, they had three more daughters and a son. Wealthy parents have put a lot of effort into giving their children a solid and respectable English upbringing and education.
Florence showed from an early age that she was created for the role of the eldest daughter. She gladly took on the duties of a nanny for helpless and needy babies. The parents, who were perfectly capable of hiring nannies for all babies, did not even know how to relate to the eldest daughter's passion. And all right, she would not be inclined to anything other than caring for young family members. No: Florence showed great ability for mathematics and a technical mindset - something that the girls of that time should not show. In principle, all her further activities required precision and excellent organization. It is mathematics that perfectly develops these character traits.
It is worth noting that virtually all of Nightingale's conscious life took place in the Victorian era. And during the reign of Britain, Queen Victoria, it was not Epicureanism that encouraged women in any way, but Puritanism and a penchant for Christian self-sacrifice.
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Temptations
When the family returned to England, Florence was almost twenty years old. In her ancestral homeland, she was subjected to what she later called the two main temptations in life. The first she overcame with ease, for that was a temptation by the delights of secular life. The salon girls of her circle did not lead anything but melancholy to the young Englishwoman. Another temptation was overcome with great difficulty.
This is not to say that Florence enjoyed great success with men. Tall and lean - a typical daughter of Foggy Albion - she was neither graceful nor flirty. But this girl attracted the attention of others: she turned out to be able to listen to any interlocutor with unprecedented warmth and attention. Her face always reflected kindness and concern. So it is not surprising that a certain Henry Nicholson, the brother of her friend, fell in love with her. He was no less in love than … sick. The sister was happy, believing that her sickly relative would fall into the hands of the caring and compassionate Miss Nightingale. Florence was still not only sweet, but also rich: her parents gave her a decent dowry. She didn't like Henry. But who cared about this in the Victorian era? A woman should bear children and experience the happiness of motherhood. And then the caring Nightingale made a trick,which no one expected from her! She broke off her engagement with Henry and announced that she was leaving for a monastery. What drove her? After all, she could well realize her desire to take care of her neighbors in a marriage with Nicholson.
Crazy?
As it turned out, Florence paid a visit to where a true lady should not tread: the workhouse. Those who have read the works of the English writer Charles Dickens will not forget the workhouses described in his books - one of the main horrors of the Victorian era. In these establishments, beggars were literally starved and tortured. The bedridden patients were located right on the floor - on fetid mattresses. To care for them were assigned drunken prostitutes who could no longer find clients. Often such wards turned into real nativity scenes, where patients, together with the "nurses", indulged in drunkenness and debauchery …
This visit helped Florence Nightingale make the final decision to devote herself to nursing. She, with her precise mathematical mind, understood: nursing care for the sick and recovering should be clearly organized and brought into the system. And this does not require a lot of funds. The main thing is the qualifications of nurses.
After what Nightingale saw in the workhouse, Henry's suffering seemed to her feigned. There was no longer any discussion of marriage.
Florence's parents deprived her of her inheritance, in the light of her they declared her crazy.
But Nightingale was one of those who didn't give a damn about the words of those who question the path she took.
At home, she did not find followers. Her method was adopted by the French Catholic sisters who were caring for the sick. Florence proposed what seems commonplace today: to keep the wards clean and tidy and to administer medications to patients on schedule. The death rate of patients after the introduction of these simple measures has been halved!
At home, they heard about the successes of the reformers and called her back - to the hospital for the ruined aristocrats.
To Crimea
But the worldwide fame of Florence Nightingale was brought … by the war. In 1853, the so-called Crimean campaign began. Britain in it acted as an enemy of Russia. The result of the battles was the weakening of the position of our country and the temporary deprivation of its Black Sea Fleet …
The mortality rate in the barracks for the wounded in this massacre exceeded forty percent. It was then that the "sorceress" Florence Nightingale was summoned. Without hesitation, she gathered a group of devoted followers and went to field hospitals, where the wounded and sick with typhus were lying side by side without care and virtually without treatment.
At first, the sisters of mercy had only to bring food to the wounded and to sew and fill straw mattresses. They bought cauldrons for washing clothes and bandages, and hired 200 people to repair and clean up previously unused hospital premises. Later, Nightingale managed to summon the famous London chef Alexis Sawyer, who began to cook delicious and nutritious food for the wounded. She arranged for the soldiers to be able to send their salaries to families, and even set up a reading room for them. Nightingale worked day and night, sometimes forgetting about food, and did her best to help the sick. And what? Thanks to her efforts, the mortality rate has become less than three percent!
The soldiers did not call Florence anything other than "the lady with the lamp." She personally with a burning kerosene lamp in her hands at night went around all the wards! Attention to complaints of patients and compassionate attitude towards people became the principle of the nurse. Those who treated their duties irresponsibly were ruthlessly kicked out of their jobs.
On March 30, 1856, the Crimean War ended. Florence stayed in the hospital after the departure of the soldiers and sisters in order to put everything in order there. She refused to take part in the ceremony at which she was going to be honored as a national heroine when she returned to her homeland. To avoid being honored, Nightingale returned home under an assumed name.
After returning to England, Florence was assigned to carry out a complete reorganization of the medical service of the British army. On her initiative, military hospitals were equipped with ventilation and sewerage systems, and hospital personnel were required to undergo the necessary training.
In 1859 and 1860, two of her books were published, which immediately sold out: "Notes on hospitals" and "Notes on hospital care: what it is and what it should not be." She wrote both works while confined to a wheelchair. In 1856 she was struck by a stroke.
Unable to move, Florence did not lose her activity. Now she gave orders without getting up from her chair. Her words were enough: the mechanism created by her worked without failures. Miss Florence Nightingale died in 1910 at the age of ninety.
In honor of her, May 12 is celebrated as World Nursing Day, and every two years the International Red Cross presents 50 Florence Nightingale medals - the highest award for nurses.
Author: Natalia Orlova