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May 30, 2001
By Lynne M. Dunphy, Ph.D., MSN, FNP-C
In May 2001, less than one hundred years after the death of Florence Nightingale in 1910, at the age of 90, we as nurses confront a variety of internal and external threats to our professional identity, our goals and aspirations. We often feel thwarted in our desire to care for our patients, to provide nurturing and healing environments. We often feel "burned out" and in need to self-care and nurturing, mere cogs in the wheels of a managed care system not of our own design or making. How would Florence Nightingale respond to these times, these challenges?
It bears remembering what Florence Nightingale confronted in Scutari, Turkey, at the Barracks Hospital outside of Constantinople during the Crimean War, 1854 - 1856. She entered a hostile environment, politically, physically, and emotionally. The doctors did not want her. The "nurses" she brought with her could be unruly. The hospital environment was primitive, unsanitary and forbidding. And yet she triumphed. She was able to bring order out of chaos, cheer and hearten her patients, champion issues of sanitary reform, and lay a foundation for the modern profession of nursing that has lasted to the present day. She arrived back in England in August 1856. Her health was broken and she shunned public acclaim. She devoted the remainder of her long life to sanitary reform, to measures to support the British soldier and improve their quality of life and health, and to building a meaningful role for women as professional nurses.
What were the unique strengths that enabled Florence Nightingale to nurse successfully, alter healing environments, live a long and meaningful life, and contribute to improved health for all who followed? For one thing, her nursing was rooted in a "call from God," to a purpose in life, a purpose greater than herself. This provided meaning in her life, meaning that enabled her to make sacrifices for her greater goal - that of providing relief of suffering and greater health. This sustained her. She was an extremely well-educated women for her time. Drawing on a broad knowledge base, she was able to see new ways to solve problems - to innovate, to create new solutions. And she had the strength of personality to implement her ideas, to lead. Her ability to lead was an outgrowth of her moral and spiritual commitment to "what was right." This gave her moral courage.
Florence Nightingale’s moral courage was tempered however with a cunning and sophisticated political sensibility, based on a realistic understanding of the world around her and how it worked. We must be realistic today, to face up to the very real challenges that confront health care, to not yearn, naively, for simple solutions. As a MSN nurse, you have chosen to take control of your schedule, your time, and your pay. You are strong nurses. And you, like Florence Nightingale, can make a difference in health care. You can continue to educate yourself and those around you in whatever area that interests YOU. You can examine your own unique reason for nursing, for the meaning that comes from your nursing work beyond a paycheck. You can work through your nursing professional organizations for what you think is the "right" in nursing - for staffing minimums, for greater pay and recognition, for standards, for an increased voice in health care issues. And you can, with moral courage, do something moment-by-moment in your nursing work - care.
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