Florence Nightingale

Florence Nightingale

Florence Nightingale was born in Florence, Italy. Her parents named her after the city she was born in. She was born on May 12,1980, she was raised mostly in Derbyshire England. Many people when they hear Florence Nightingale think about her as a nurse and for her fight for better hospital care. Florence did a lot more in her life than achieve better hospital conditions, and become a nurse. She was a brilliant mathematician, and used statistics to apply them to achieve her reforms. Florence was a well-educated woman in a number of fields other than math; she had been educated in history, economics, astronomy, science, philosophy, and a number of languages. Her mother taught her how to be social and leadership qualities. Florence was born in an upper-class lifestyle but she didn’t like it. She didn’t do things that the typical upper-class child would do, she would care for sick and injured pets, and when she was older she took care of servants who were sick. This is what started her up on her mission as a nurse.

In 1849 Florence went abroad to study the European hospital system. In 1853 she became the superintendent for the Hospital for Invalid Gentlewomen in London. In 1854 Florence raised the economic and productive aspect of women’s status by volunteering to run all the nursing duties during the Crimean War. With her efforts the mortality rates of the sick and wounded soldiers was reduced. While being a nurse was her profession and what she was known for, she used statistics to achieve her reforms. During the Crimean War, Florence collected data and made a system for keeping records. She used the data for improving hospital conditions. Using her calculations she determined that an improvement in sanitary conditions would lead to a decrease in deaths. During her time this was the first time a woman had came up with such a productive theory to reduce the mortality rate. Florence was dedicated to improving the health and living conditions of the British army, the sanitary and administration of hospitals, and the way women were looked at if they wanted to pursue a profession in nursing.

Florence Nightingale also raised the educational status of women by opening up the Nightingale School Home for Nurses in Saint Thomas’s Hospital in England. This was the first educational facility dedicated towards nursing for women. The women of the 19th century didn’t usually get an education equal to the education of a man. Florence’s family didn’t think that way though. Florence also raised women’s educational status by being educated by her father who gave Florence and her sister a vast classical education. One person that definitely needs to be mentioned is James Sylvestor, he was Florence’s math tutor. He is the man who is responsible for teaching Florence mathematics that she used in so many different ways to achieve different things.

Florence loved to collect, arrange, and present facts and figures. She came to the conclusion that mortality statistics should be separated by age, and death rates could be misleading. In 1850 there was no scientific system for reporting mortality statistics, so Florence introduced a system of recording the sickness and mortality records of the military hospitals, using statistics and other math concepts. For her next reforms she made proposals for improving the collection and recording of health statistics. Florence gives a lot of credit to her advisor William Farr, who helped her make these proposals. Florence was the one who would bring the mathematical approach to the statistics, and William Farr was the one who brought the scientific aspect of recording statistics. What Florence was doing was shocking the people in the 19th century, because women were never thought to be smart or productive enough to come up with proposals like the ones that Florence Nightingale came up with.

A number of people opposed the reforms proposed by Florence. She answered these oppositions by presenting sound statistical data to back up her ideas. One example was when she showed that seven times the amount of people died from diseases than were killed in a war. The people who opposed her had nothing to respond to her statistics because they were the facts. The publication of the statistics led to chaos in the public. When she studied the data of the hospitals she concluded that many of the deaths that occurred in the hospitals didn’t need to happen. The results of her studies of army medical statistics were published in a report called “Notes Affecting the Health, Efficiency and Hospital Administration of the British Army”. These notes that Florence published made a profound economic impression on the country. She showed the causes of failure and how the country could best provide help for the soldiers in the next war. This paved the way for women to make more economic ideas for the government