Nightingale’s Environmental Theory of Sanitation


In view of Florence Nightingale’s early life, she was a nurse by profession, writer and statistician.  She came from a rich and prominent British family.  She was born in Florence, Italy.  When she was a nurse, she used to attend to the wounded soldiers in the midst of wars.  That is why she was popularly known as “The Lady with the Lamp” because of she used to make rounds at night to check if her soldier-patients are in good condition.  Later, she established her own foundation for professional nurses in 1860 at St. Thomas Hospital in London.  This was the first secular nursing school in the continent.  Today, it has been already a part of King’s College London. Florence Nightingale seriously believed that being in the nursing profession was a calling from God.  Moreover, her parents were not in favor of her entering to nursing field.  Her parents wanted her to get married and simply build a family of her own which she can take care of.  But, she really wanted to become a nurse, and chose to devote her time and effort to excel in the nursing field. 


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Florence Nightingale was the founder of modern nursing.  Her work and contributions altered the public health status of many public hospitals until these modern times.  Her environmental theory of sanitation had greatly influenced and developed the roles of nurses worldwide.  As a matter of fact, her environmental theory was so basic, but it was written by details about her personal beliefs and concerns towards health and welfare of many people most especially the poor communities in the world.  In the same fashion, she remarkably made an effort to reduce the mortality rates of soldiers during Crimean War.  And, what is most significant her was that, Nightingale influenced devotion to nursing works by her written book entitled “Notes on Nursing”.    She certainly believed that there is a deeper meaning of being a nurse.  The profession and its practitioners must provide personalized care to their patients through looking relentlessly after their mental and physical health.  She also influences the proper health care and improvement living conditions of her patients as well as the other people.  She used her human and financial influences to support the social and environmental health policies for the majority of people.  Nightingale’s most effective approach and strategy to be able to improve the health conditions of her patients were to focus on the clean and good condition of the environment.  She really believed that a good sanitation had a great impact to a person’s health.  As a result, she had advocated for health promotion and disease prevention through building decent housing projects.  In addition she also made an effort to create clean water supplies for the communities; for she knew that many deaths were caused by water and airborne diseases.  She also managed to  improve people’s nutrition, safe birthing practices for mothers and infants, as well as good child caring and raring. 


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Besides, she also taught people to become aware of home health practice; and also refrain from going to the hospitals to avoid disease contamination.   With this intention,   Nightingale believed that there were five essential elements in healthy home practice that include pure air, pure water, good drainage, cleanliness and light.   She strongly considered that healing would be impossible without proper order of the environment and without giving the basic needs of the people.  Therefore, it must be an evident that her theory really deals with the importance of clean environment and everything that  people need in order to live in a healthy way.  She also strongly believed that clean air was very important to live healthier and longer.  She advised for families to create good ventilation in their houses, as she regarded clean air and good ventilation as the best weapon and prevention for any disease.  Her theory also emphasized that the main cause of any disease is the poor environment condition. And, to be able to improve the environment, the people must learn to practice good sanitation in every part of the globe; and proper health planning and environmental strategies must be implemented in order to live a healthy and blissful life.


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