Advocate for Education

How has Florence Nightingale’s legacy impacted today’s nursing profession?  In her day, the nurse was considered nothing more than a servant or housemaid.  During the war, the nurses were not permitted to speak with doctors or do any nursing work, except cooking, washing, or sewing (Stanley & Sherratt, 2010).  The Nightingale Fund was established in 1855 to start training schools for nurses, despite initial opposition from doctors that nurses did not need formal training to be housemaids (Attewell, 1998).  Florence did not consider herself to be a teacher but did extensive writing on environmental management and sanitation.  In fact, she had very little involvement in her training schools during the last 50 years of her life, most likely due to poor health. 

As the number of Nightingale hospital schools increased all over the world, nursing became a more respectable profession for women.  Today, both men and women are nurses in the health care industry, diversified into many specialized areas of patient care.  The scope and practice of nurses today are largely defined by their level of education.