Prof reveals Florence Nightingale's political side

Brian Walker, an associate professor of political science at UCLA, may seem like an unlikely candidate to teach nursing students about Florence Nightingale — but that's because few people realize Nightingale wasn't just a nurse.

 

The iconic picture of Nightingale is of a woman carrying a lamp while completing evening rounds in a hospital ward, illustrating her long-standing nickname, "The Lady with the Lamp." But Nightingale was more than just an attractive nurse giving comfort to soldiers, Walker told UCLA School of Nursing students attending his talk, "The Military Mind of Florence Nightingale," on Oct. 22 in the centennial year of her death. She was an exemplary nurse who did much to professionalize the position, and a statistician with a military mind.

 

"She was an individual frequently motivated by a sense of righteous indignation, who turned that indignation outward and put it to work in a way that continues to benefit mankind," Walker explained. He became fascinated with Nightingale after researching and teaching about her, and used the talk to describe Nightingale's life and show how much of her work is still applicable to nursing today — both in practice and in leadership.

 

 

Born into wealth in 1820, Florence Nightingale could have lived a simple, pampered life in her native England. Instead, she decided to follow what she described as a calling from God. She was 20 when she began nursing people and found she had a real aptitude for it. But in the mid-1800s, Walker explained, this was a scandalous pursuit: Nursing was not a respectable position, and was often performed by "ladies of ill-repute," he said.

 

She trained at a religious order in Germany before opening a small hospital of her own in London. Nightingale wasn't there long before the Crimean War broke out, and spurred by an old friend, she journeyed to the warfront with a small cadre of volunteer "nurses" – comprised both of women with medical training as well as prostitutes, Walker said.

 

Upon their arrival, the women were appalled by the conditions of the hospital. Poor sanitation and rampant infection meant that wounded soldiers were actually more likely to die if they went to the hospital than if they remained on the battlefield, Walker said. Nightingale would use her determination and methodical research to improve conditions – but not at first.

 

Initially, the nurses were unwelcomed by the doctors, and the women spent time wrapping bandages and doing other menial tasks — until injuries from the Battle of Balaclava overwhelmed the hospitals and the doctors accepted the nurses. Then the nurses significantly improved the soldiers care and chances of survival, Walker said. They cleaned patients, prepared special meals and even created privacy screens for the operating rooms. Nightingale's work soon caught the attention of Queen Victoria, with whom she took up a correspondence and developed a relationship that lasted a lifetime.

In an effort that changed the face of the British military's medical care, Nightingale wrote a 1,000 page book for a royal commission — the book can be seen in the UCLA Biomedical Library — detailing her experiences in Crimea and providing statistics on her efforts to reduce mortality.

 

"I stand at the altar of the murdered men," Nightingale said upon her return from Crimea, "and while I live, I shall fight for their cause."

 

Nightingale's efforts to improve sanitation reduced death rates at the Crimean hospital from 42 percent to 2 percent, Walker said. She was a pioneering statistician and campaigned hard, and with good success, in reforming the how the British Army cared for its sick and injured.

 

Throughout her life, Nightingale fought to elevate the status and the standards of nursing, Walker said. During the Crimean War, she succeeded in convincing a prominent newspaper to take up a collection supporting her work. In 1860, she decided to use the money to start a hospital program to train nurses. Soon, her rigorously-trained nurses spread professional nursing all over the world. 

Nightingale was a civilized warrior and an inspirational leader who modern nurses can still look up to, Walker said, again praising her military mind: "She was brilliant as a statistician, adhered to a rigid code of honor, and lived completely for the service of others."