Nightingale's environmental theory - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Florence Nightingale OM, RRC was a celebrated English nurse, writer and statistician. She came to prominence for her pioneering work in nursing during the Crimean War, where she tended to wounded soldiers. She was dubbed "The Lady with the Lamp" after her habit of making rounds at night...

(1820–1910), considered the founder of educated and scientific nursing

Nursing

Nursing is a healthcare profession focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life from conception to death....

and widely known as "The Lady with the Lamp", wrote the first nursing notes that became the basis of nursing practice and research. The notes, entitled Notes on Nursing: What it is, What is not (1860), listed some of her theories that have served as foundations of nursing practice in various settings, including the succeeding conceptual framework

Conceptual framework

A conceptual framework is used in research to outline possible courses of action or to present a preferred approach to an idea or thought. For example, the philosopher Isaiah Berlin used the "hedgehogs" versus "foxes" approach; a "hedgehog" might approach the world in terms of a single organizing...

s and theories in the field of nursing

Nursing

. Nightingale is considered the first nursing theorist. One of her theories was the Environmental Theory, which incorporated the restoration of the usual health status of the nurse's clients into the delivery of health care

Health care

Health care is the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in humans. Health care is delivered by practitioners in medicine, chiropractic, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, allied health, and other care providers...

—it is still practiced today.

Environmental effects

She stated in her nursing notes that nursing "is an act of utilizing the environment of the patient to assist him in his recovery" (Nightingale 1860/1969),, that it involves the nurse's initiative to configure environmental settings appropriate for the gradual restoration of the patient's health, and that external factors associated with the patient's surroundings affect life or biologic and physiologic processes, and his development.

Environmental factors affecting health

Pure or fresh air
Pure water
Sufficient food supplies
Efficient drainage
Cleanliness
Light (especially direct sunlight)

Any deficiency in one or more of these factors could lead to impaired functioning of life processes or diminished health status.

Provision of care by environment

The factors posed great significance during Nightingale's time, when health institutions had poor sanitation, and health workers had little education and training and were frequently incompetent and unreliable in attending to the needs of the patients. Also emphasized in her environmental theory is the provision of a quiet or noise-free and warm environment, attending to patient's dietary needs by assessment, documentation of time of food intake, and evaluating its effects on the patient.

Nightingale's theory was shown to be applicable during the Crimean War

Crimean War

The Crimean War was a conflict fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining...

when she, along with other nurses she had trained, took care of injured soldiers by attending to their immediate needs, when communicable diseases and rapid spread of infection

Infection

An infection is the colonization of a host organism by parasite species. Infecting parasites seek to use the host's resources to reproduce, often resulting in disease...

s were rampant in this early period in the development of disease-capable medicines. The practice of environment configuration according to patient's health or disease condition is still applied today, in such cases as patients infected with Clostridium tetani
Clostridium tetani
Clostridium tetani is a rod-shaped, anaerobic bacterium of the genus Clostridium. Like other Clostridium species, it is Gram-positive, and its appearance on a gram stain resembles tennis rackets or drumsticks. C. tetani is found as spores in soil or in the gastrointestinal tract of animals. C...

(suffering from tetanus

Tetanus

Tetanus is a medical condition characterized by a prolonged contraction of skeletal muscle fibers. The primary symptoms are caused by tetanospasmin, a neurotoxin produced by the Gram-positive, rod-shaped, obligate anaerobic bacterium Clostridium tetani...

), who need minimal noise to calm them and a quiet environment to prevent seizure-causing stimulus.

Environmental effects

Environmental factors affecting health

Provision of care by environment

See also