Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale, the person who single handedly changed the image of nursing profession and a true advocate of public health. Her compassionate and painstaking personality as a nurse during the Crimean War (1856) gave her the title of “The lady with the lamp”. Today, on her 200th birthday it’s hard to find someone who is not aware about her contribution to the world of healthcare. But this is not the only area where Florence excelled. She had a brilliant mind for statistics and was an earnest figure to implement numbers for solving practical problems. It’s a shame that, her this side of role has been significantly ignored while lauding about Florence’s contribution. So this article is a tribute to the “Statistician Nightingale”.
How very little can be done under the sprit of fear.
Florence Nightingale
The way it all started
Her attraction in mathematics was first caught up at the early age of nine, when she used charts and diagrams for keeping records of the number and growth of the vegetables which she grew in her garden.
After primary schooling, she was having regular tuition on science and mathematics from teachers of Cambridge. Around that same time, Florence was introduced with Charles Babbage — an astute mathematician, mechanical engineer, inventor and the father of computer. This encounter with Babbage was an enlightening period for Florence, as her interest in mathematics and numbers got a new direction under his influence. Apart from him, work of a Belgian statistician Adolphe Quetelet — popularly known for introducing statistics in the field of social science created great impact on Florence to be passionate about statistics.
In 1851 Florence was set to study nursing in Kaiserswerth, Germany. After finishing her school, she joined the Hospital for Gentlewomen in London in 1852. There among all other works, she specifically gave focus on collecting patient’s report, general information, recovery rate and keeping record in the registers.
The Crimean War
The Crimean War was the turning point for Florence’s career as a nurse. By the time she reached there in November 1954, the hospital was in horrific condition. It was a cesspool of putrid water, soldiers were lying on their filth, there was no concern about cleanliness or hygiene whatsoever — as a result more soldiers were dying out of infection than the battlefields. This rattling condition forced Florence to plea the government for a sanitary commission to take hygiene matters in control.
Besides improving healthcare, Florence initiated a well-maintained registry system because when she first arrived in Crimea, the record keeping system was a mess. Even the number of deaths didn’t have an accurate counting. She started inserting different types of data in tabulation such as injury type, blood group, arrival and discharge time, death records etc. Later on, this data became a massive groundwork for Florence to create a movement of implementing a proper documentation process in the healthcare systems.