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Notes on Hospitals

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The founder of modern nursing expressed her revolutionary ideas of hospital reform in these two essays, published in 1859 and presented the previous year at the Social Science Congress. During the Crimean War, Florence Nightingale achieved renown as The Lady with the Lamp, the tireless caretaker of wounded soldiers. Afterward, Nightingale searched Europe for innovations to help the army improve its hospital care. This report of her findings and suggestions had a profound effect on the medical community and reestablished the author as an international healthcare authority.Despite the advances in medical knowledge since Nightingale's era, her common-sense approach continues to form a solid foundation for nursing. In these essays she voices the importance of hygiene―fresh air and water, cleanliness, proper drainage, and ample light―as well as ongoing consideration for patients' feelings. Nightingale's ability to effectively articulate her ideas impressed her contemporaries and continues to influence modern readers. This volume serves as a companion to Nightingale's classic of nursing literature, Notes on What It Is, and What It Is Not.

230 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2010

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Florence Nightingale

217 books118 followers
Florence Nightingale, OM, RRC was an English nurse, writer and statistician. She came to prominence during the Crimean War for her pioneering work in nursing, and was dubbed "The Lady with the Lamp" after her habit of making rounds at night to tend injured soldiers. Nightingale laid the foundation stone of professional nursing with the principles summarised in the book Notes on Nursing. The Nightingale Pledge taken by new nurses was named in her honour, and the annual International Nurses Day is celebrated around the world on her birthday.

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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
Profile Image for Lynn Walker.
24 reviews3 followers
July 20, 2019
excellent record of her findings and views with respect to military and civilian hospitals.
Profile Image for Honor Gedda-Nowacki.
2 reviews3 followers
August 12, 2022
DO NOT WASH your HANDS unless you do THIS she says - OPEN THE F WINDOWS people ! How many times does this woman make this point in every book she writes as a statistician observing outcomes of infection and health before antibiotics ?

Well here is where the CDC messed up REAL BAD on COVID and the general principles of infection control, the reason they STILL don’t classify it as “airborne” like TB and why we constructed every home and building incorrectly.

Whose Dr. Elliot? He messed up real bad sending us on a collision course to modern day health and infection control.

This is THE MOST IMPORTANT BOOK that NO ONE ever read. Her data is conclusive that fresh ground floor air moving like the earths atmosphere, unobstructed is the #1 determinant in infection control and health, even with modern ventilation.

The higher you go up in a building the higher the infection rate and or space per patient needed for the inmates.

Ground floor earths atmosphere in climates cold better than hot, dry better than humid, most importantly how FAST it is moving the breath away from the human including space in cubic feet. The math is in line with MITs aerosol People area surfaces space project.

She brilliantly used “weather science” and fire as a vacuum to get rapid inflow from the TOP OF WINDOWS in cold weather- when a cold front hits a warm front what happens? It rains! So all the DROPLETS from the breath go down in the strata of air and get bigger to be cleaned from the floor and or sucked in from the fire at GROUND level !

A possible mechanism in which this works is the discovery of the microbiome. There is 90% wild yeast and 10% bacteria floating in most ecosystems. In our homes that is reversed. The air is stagnant. Before it enters it’s filtered or heated.

We are fermenting ourselves in a slow bake oven as she brilliantly points out. How could WE MISS this? It’s more important than FOOD well cooked for longevity and health?
Profile Image for Andy.
2,155 reviews623 followers
June 18, 2023
It's sad that people still haven't figured out today--even after COVID--timeless logical concepts that Florence Nightingale was pointing out in 1859, like the difference between population density and crowding. It's also sad that people had to recently "discover" the importance of ventilation for preventing infection. I hope we don't soon have to rediscover the importance of things like sewers.

It's fascinating to see how she managed to prevent many deaths from infectious diseases before Germ Theory by providing sanitary conditions and measuring outcomes of interventions. Another interesting quality was her humility in visiting hospitals in other countries and going on about how they do certain things much better in Paris or Berlin or wherever.

This text is valubale for those interested in public health, prevention of epidemics, the Sanitarian movement, etc.

Overall however, this is pretty unreadable because it's extraordinarily redundant and mostly outdated and not meant for the general public in any case.

Quotes:
"It will be seen at a glance, that in every such case and in every such example, the 'infection' is not inevitable, but simply the result of carelessness and ignorance. As soon as this practical view of the subject is admitted and acted upon, we shall cease to hear of hospital contagions."

"The officer of health of towns ... does not do the work of the physician or surgeon; and on the other hand, you do not send for your physician or surgeon to drain your street."
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews