How very little can be done under the spirit of fear...

I hope everyone is continuing to stay safe and distanced.

Two hundred years ago this week marked the birth date of the founder of modern nursing – Florence Nightingale.  As we celebrate Nurses day around the globe, and they continue to fight this pandemic on the front lines, I thought I would learn a bit more about Nightingale.

Largely considered a trailblazer, Nightingale was born to the British upper class, and grew up as a headstrong child who didn’t fit in with the British elite. When she initially approached her parents with her dreams of becoming a nurse, they were disapproving – they did not believe that someone of her stature should be taking such a career. At the age of 30, she enrolled in a nursing program in Germany, and worked at a variety of hospitals in the early 1950s.  She paid particular attention to sanitary practices at these institutions, and lowered the mortality rate due to her diligence.

In 1853, the Crimean War broke out, and Nightingale was asked organize a group of nurses to help the fallen British soldiers in the Crimea, who desperately needed medical attention. A few days later, she and over 30 of her fellow nurses sailed for Crimea and braced themselves for what they were about to see there. They arrived to patients in the most dire circumstances – barely any supplies, very little clean water, and buildings infested with rats and bugs. Over the next year and a half, Nightingale instituted the best practices she could – she created a laundry system so patients would have clean linens, she had the hospital regularly sanitized, and she reduced the death rate in the hospital by two thirds.

When she returned home, she used a reward from Queen Victoria to create St. Thomas’ Hospital, and a training school to train nurses. In the years that followed, nursing became a more esteemed profession for women of all classes, and Nightingale pushed for social reforms ranging from hunger relief in India to ending prostitution laws. She also was an accomplished statistician, and was able to use data visualization techniques to help improve her writing.

A quote I came across resonated so deeply during this time for me –

How very little can be done under the spirit of fear.

-- Florence Nightingale

This week, as we celebrate our essential workers, and in particular, our nurses, I hope that we can remember the pioneers that got us to this point. And we can begin to honor their memory by believing – and I truly do believe this – that the heroes we will celebrate in 200 years are working in the critical institutions that are helping us get through these darkest days.

-Reshma