Paper
Thursday, July 22, 2004
This presentation is part of : Nursing History and Model Development
Florence Nightingale and the Great Exhibitions: Health, Registration and the Nursing Profession
Louise C. Selanders, EdD, RN, College of Nursing, Michigan State University, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA and Alex Attewell, N/A, Florence Nightingale Museum, London, United Kingdom.
Learning Objective #1: Identify the evolution of Nightingale's thoughts on health, public health, nursing registration, and sanitation
Learning Objective #2: Discuss the impact of the great exhibitions on modern nursing practice

Objective: To determine Nightingale’s role as a social change agent through the Great Exhibitions of the 19th century.

Design: Primary document review with word and concept identification.

Sample and Years: Nightingale’s major productive years of 1853 through 1893.

Concept Studied: Major concepts were health, holism, sanitation and nursing registration.

Methods: Primary document review including newly discovered materials from Harley Street, letters from Nightingale, Quain’s ‘Dictionary’ articles, and ‘Sick Nursing and Health Nursing’ were examined.

Findings: The great exhibitions, particularly the Columbian Exhibition of 1893, were major vehicles for Nightingale to convey her thoughts on professional nursing and her concern about health practices of the general public. Although rarely in the public eye after her return from the Crimea, she was an effective- if reclusive- campaigner who created effective social change.

Conclusions: The great exhibitions were ideological battlegrounds for major professional points of discussion such as nursing registration. The analysis of Sick Nursing and Health Nursing in the context of the 1890s provides an assessment of Nightingale’s relevance and her emphasis on holism in nursing and health of the populous as motivating professional concepts.

Implications: The value of historical research in nursing lies in defining the past and in determining the impact on the present and future of the profession. Nightingale, as the foundational philosopher of nursing, continues to have significant influence on the profession’s development.

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Sigma Theta Tau International
July 22-24, 2004