Notes on Nursing: What It Is, and What It Is Not (Dover Books on Biology) - Softcover

Nightingale, Florence

Softcover

ISBN 10: 048622340X ISBN 13: 9780486223407

Publisher: Dover Publications, 1969

Synopsis

"My heart always sinks within me when I hear the good housewife, of every class, say, 'I assure you the bed has been well slept in,' and I can only hope it is not true. What? Is the bed already saturated with somebody else's damp before my patient comes to exhale in it his own damp? Has it not had a single chance to be aired? No, not one. It has been slept in every night."
From the best known work of Florence Nightingale (1820–1910), the originator and founder of modern nursing, comes a collection of notes that played an important part in the much needed revolution in the field of nursing. For the first time it was brought to the attention of those caring for the sick that their responsibilities covered not only the administration of medicines and the application of poultices, but the proper use of fresh air, light, warmth, cleanliness, quiet, and the proper selection and administration of diet. Miss Nightingale is outspoken on these subjects as well as on other factors that she considers essential to good nursing. But, whatever her topic, her main concern and attention is always on the patient and his needs.
One is impressed with the fact that the fundamental needs of the sick as observed by Miss Nightingale are amazingly similar today (even though they are generally taken for granted now) to what they were over 100 years ago when this book was written. For this reason, this little volume is as practical as it is interesting and entertaining. It will be an inspiration to the student nurse, refreshing and stimulating to the experienced nurse, and immensely helpful to anyone caring for the sick.

About this title

About the Author

Florence Nightingale, history's most notable nurse, earned her fame during the Crimean War. Nightingale led a group of three dozen nurses to Constantinople to serve in British military field hospitals, where female nurses had previously been forbidden. She convinced army officials to change terrible conditions in the hospitals, thus earning the gratitude of soldiers--and celebrity in her native England. When the war ended in 1856, she returned to London and continued her reform campaign. Her outspoken Notes on Matters Affecting the Health, Efficiency and Hospital Administration of the British Army (1857) and Notes on Hospitals (1859) helped create changes in hygiene and overall treatment of patients. She also founded the groundbreaking Nightingale Training School for nurses, and in later years published dozens of books and pamphlets on public health. Nightingale was awarded the Royal Red Cross by Queen Victoria in 1883, and in 1907 became the first woman to receive the Order of Merit.

Review

-Because these notes record the skillful observations of a trained eye and mind on the fundamental needs of human beings in sickness and in the prevention of sickness, they are to a great degree timeless in their usefulness to the student of nursing in any country in the world.

-Virginia M. Dunbar, Dean, Cornell University

New York Hospital, New York City, 1946

-As one reads these notes one is impressed with the fact that the fundamental needs of the sick and the principles of good care for the well and the ill are the same today as when they were observed by Nightingale over one-hundred-years ago.

-Margaret B. Dolan, Professor and Head,

Dept. of Public Health Nursing, School of Public Health,

Univ. of North Carolina, 1969

-This is the work of genius if ever I saw one; it will, I doubt not, create an Order of Nurses before it has finished its work.

-Harriet Martineau, author of fiction and non-fiction, c. 1860

Edition details

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Publication date: 1969
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 048622340X
• ISBN 13: 9780486223407
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 160