The Theorist Florence Nightingale

Running head: THE THEORIST FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE 1
The Theorist Florence Nightingale
Student’s Name
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THE THEORIST FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE 2
The Theorist Florence Nightingale
The theorist Florence Nightingale was born on 12th May in the year 1820 to William and
Frances in the second year of their honeymoon ventures. Her name Florence was after the Italian
city where she was born. She was the second born child after her Parthenope the firstborn who
was born a year before her. Born to wealthy Unitarians, Florence desired to help the poor and the
sick which pushed her to convince her parents to let her go to nursing school at Kaiserswerth in
the year 1851 (Sinha, 2017). Post-graduation, she paid visits to a couple of health units in
England and Europe as a whole. She was keen on studying hospital designs and disease
incidences through reports and government publications.
The environmental theory coined by Florence Nightingale is centered on the patient’s
surroundings that are known to impact disease and death. Guided by her experiences in the
Crimean war, the ‘Lady with the Lamp,’ Nightingale was well aware of the value of sanitary
conditions and the impact of sanitary reforms on patient care. Apart from the calling and war
experiences, the environmental theory formulation was further guided by her careful examination
of the part played by environmental conditions on patient health and outcomes (Alligood, 2018).
Florence made notes on practice, they were meant to guide nursing practice when it comes to the
care of others since she solidly believed that nurses had big parts to play when it comes to
manipulation of the patient environment to aid nature in its course. Made up of 10 major canons,
her theory was bent on providing recommendations on the implementation of sound patient care
environment. They include lighting and noise, ventilation and warming, chattering advice and
giving hopes, bed, and bedding, the health of the houses, cleanliness of the rooms including
walls, food and the type of food, personal hygiene, variety, and patient observation (Alligood,
2018).