Florence Nightingale's Notes On Nursing: What It Is, and What It Is Not

Florence Nightingale's Notes on Nursing
What It Is, and What It Is Not
Florence Nightingale's Notes on Nursing was first published in England

in 1859 and in America in 1860. Her book clearly establishes her vision
of nursing as a genuine natural healing practice, concerned with
preventative medicine, and was a far cry from what the profession of
nursing would become in the modern health care system.
Nightingale wrote about many of the essential beliefs of the natural

hygiene movement. She referred to these hygienic beliefs as the"laws of
life" that would give mothers knowledge of "how to give their children
healthy existences." Further, she clearly placed the comfort and needs of
the patient ahead of the thoughtless pursuit of science; a trait which is
more commonly associated today with alternative medicine, than it is
with conventional medicine.
Her book documents many different things. How influential science had
become in the middle of the 19th century. Her concern with sanitation,
hygiene, and miasmas. And, that some sanitary reforms had in fact been
made in urban areas. She referred to "scientific physicians" as well as to
the chemistry of food; not in terms of carbohydrates, protein and fat, but
rather in terms of key elements such as hydrogen and nitrogen. She was
obviously somewhat familiar with the existence of chemistry as she threw
around terms like"carbonic acid" even though her preference was clearly
for using natural hygienic terms like "vital power," "nature's reparative
processes," "effluvia," and "putrefaction."
Nightingale made quite a number of astounding comments in this book of

hers.
What do the bedridden really die from? "But in chronic cases, lasting
over months and years, where the fatal issue is often determine at last by
mere protracted starvation." And, "death, as every one of great
experience knows, is far less often produced by any one organic disease
than by some illness, after many other diseases, producing just the sum of
exhaustion necessary for death."
"Almost all superstitions are owing to bad observation, to the post hoc,
ergo propter hoc [defective reasoning]; and bad observers are almost all
superstitious." Nightingale made quite a few comments on the proper
observation of patients. Reading between the lines readers are left with
the thought that observation and experience can be an effective tool to
maintain health with and to deal with sickness and disease.
Nightingale even managed to knock the mindless pursuit of science. "It is

not for the sake of piling up miscellaneous information or curious facts,
but for the sake of saving life and increasing health and comfort. The
caution may seem useless, but it is quite surprising how many men (some
women do it too), practically behave as if the scientific end were the only
one in view, or as if the sick body were but a reservoir for stowing
medicines into, and the surgical disease only a curious case the sufferer
has made for the attendant's special information [and ego gratification].
This is really no exaggeration."
And, how about this natural hygiene motto? "We know nothing of the
principle of health, the positive of which pathology is the negative, except
from observation and experience. And nothing but observation and
experience will teach us the ways to maintain or to bring back the state of
health. It is often thought that medicine is the curative process. It is no
such thing; ... nature alone cures. ... And what [true] nursing has to do ...
is to put the patient in the best condition for nature to act upon him."
Florence Nightingale even commented a few times on the mind-body

connection. And, also, made many small observations, such as the
English do not like sweet tasting foods in general or that "coffee is a
better restorative than tea, but a greater impairer of the digestion."
This tiny book is still worthwhile reading for everyone since it covers the
basics of hygiene, explains how to deal with sick people which can be
applied to colds, flu and measles, and if you can read between the lines
offers tips on how to survive a hospital experience. But, you will need to
read it several times before you will pick up on all the subtleness of
Florence Nightingale's witty prose.
Introduction
• "Shall we begin by taking it as a general principle--that all

disease, at some period or other of its course, is more or less a
reparative process."
• "The thing which strikes the experienced observer most

forcibly is this, that the symptoms or the sufferings generally
considered to be inevitable and incident to the disease are very
often not symptoms of the disease at all, but of something quite
different--of the want of fresh air, or of light, or of warmth, or of
quiet, or of cleanliness, or of punctuality and care in the
administration of diet, or each or of all of these."
• "If a patient is cold, if a patient is feverish, if a patient is

faint, if he is sick after taking food, if he has a bed-sore, it is
generally the fault not of the disease, but of the nursing."
• Nursing "has been [up to this point] limited to signify little

more than the administration of medicines and the application of
poultices. It ought to signify the proper use of fresh air, light,
warmth, cleanliness, quiet, and the proper selection and
administration of diet--all at the least expense of vital power to the
patient."
• "God had made disease to be, viz., a reparative process."

• "Nursing ought to assist the reparative process [of nature]."
• Nightingale laments that "so deep-rooted and universal is the

conviction that to give medicine is to be doing something, or rather
everything; [but] to give air, warmth, cleanliness, etc., is to do
nothing." Reading between the lines, the reader is left to figure out
for themselves that this 'nothing' is precisely what "true
nursing" should be concerned with.
• "The causes of the enormous child mortality are perfectly

well known; they are chiefly want of cleanliness, want of
ventilation, want of white-washing; in one word, defective
household hygiene."

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Florence Nightingale's Notes on Nursing

What It Is, and What It Is Not

Florence Nightingale's Notes on Nursing was first published in England

Nightingale wrote about many of the essential beliefs of the natural

Nightingale made quite a number of astounding comments in this book of

Nightingale even managed to knock the mindless pursuit of science. "It is

Florence Nightingale even commented a few times on the mind-body

• "Shall we begin by taking it as a general principle--that all

• "The thing which strikes the experienced observer most

• "If a patient is cold, if a patient is feverish, if a patient is

• Nursing "has been [up to this point] limited to signify little

• "God had made disease to be, viz., a reparative process."

• Nightingale laments that "so deep-rooted and universal is the

• "The causes of the enormous child mortality are perfectly

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