By using diagrams for her statistical analysis, Nightingale made information typically meant for doctors, accessible to other healthcare professionals and eventually the general population. As we celebrate 200 years since the birth of Florence Nightingale, the beliefs and methods that she helped bring to the mainstream still bare a great deal of importance. All Rights Reserved.

RESPONSIBILITY e.V. An Englishwoman born 200 years ago today helped shape current efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and to save the lives of those with the virus and nurse them back to health. The full scope of her influence on contemporary nurses, nursing care and nursing research, and, for example, on social and health reform, including sanitation, hygiene, hospital design and statistics is … Nightingale writes to Hewlett updating him on the status of the Army Sanitary Commission re-organization and asking to borrow a pamphlet on the port in Bombay. The work and methods that Nightingale researched, developed and promoted would have a monumental impact on healthcare within British society and eventually worldwide. Florence Nightingale responds to a letter from T. G. Hewlett, Health Officer of Bombay. 35(5):147-50. [v] In addition to sanitizing the wards, these changes to patient care led to hospital case fatality dropping to just 2% within a 6 month span. Nightingale thanks Hewlett for two documents he sent to her, one concerning sanitation in Ahmedabad, and the other, the Annual Sanitary Blue Book Proof. Clinical Infectious Diseases 40(12): 1799-1805. The Reynolds-Finley Library holds a collection of letters spanning the years 1867-1889, written to Dr. Thomas Gillham Hewlett, who served as sanitary commissioner and Health Officer of Bombay. Groups carry on with online programming and some live performances. T. G. Hewlett thinks that it should be necessary to get approval from the central Government of India to borrow money for local engineering work. [7] Cohen, I.B.

Her initial concern was with the British troops stationed there, but her attention quickly turned toward the natives, and they became the main focus of her forty-year involvement in the health of the region. (2020). Dr. Lawrence Reynolds, born in 1889 in Ozark and a 1912 graduate of the University of Alabama, left the state to attend medical school at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Epidemiology, 20(2). The story of how UAB came to possess Nightingale’s letters is also remarkable. [vi] Winkelstein W. Jr. (2009). Nightingale’s contributions to medicine go beyond enhancing sanitation and hygiene in military hospitals. In this brief note to Hewlett, Nightingale explains that she will write more soon about advice she has received that will be of interest to him. Reynolds-Finley’s “The Life of Florence Nightingale” notes that she is probably most famous for her work during the Crimean War (1854-56).

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/07/health-workers-rights-covid-report/. 311. For decades, Nightingale advised and corresponded with British leaders in India, most notably with Dr. Thomas Gillham Hewlett, who was sanitary commissioner and health officer of Bombay. He was raised in Alabama. As Nightingale later explains in a letter of October 10, 1888, "Without this, without the engaging the people themselves on our side - without convincing them of what is their own interest, we may pass what Sanitary Acts we please, but they remain a dead letter: We may have the most exact knowledge of what is wanted, but we cannot carry it out.". In this letter, Nightingale sends her response and the response from the India Office explaining why things should remain de-centralized. Nightingale gained notoriety during the Crimean War (1853-1856), where she served as a field nurse at a British military camp. A retired UAB faculty member who lives in Nashville was visiting The Upper Room, a Christian ministry, during last year’s holiday season. Nightingale writes to T. G. Hewlett, CIE Health Officer of Bombay, 1867-1889, thanking him for sending a copy of his "Report on the Prevention of Cholera", and she comments upon it.

Nightingale writes to Hewlett about the possibility of a reduction in staff for Bombay Sanitary Commissioners. The tireless work of Nightingale still serves as shining example of the impact that healthcare workers have on society. Nightingale informs Hewlett that she is trying to obtain the report he wants to see about the Bombay port. She, in turn, was a beneficial ally for him in England. The letters were part of his collection of 5,000 rare books and manuscripts on medicine and science that he donated to the University of Alabama School of Medicine in 1958 to establish the Reynolds Historical Library. ), “We are so fortunate to have them in our collection. Balch says Nightingale’s letters reflect her nature, values and calling to nursing. UAB’s School of Nursing takes the “really crucial lessons that Nightingale documented for us” and applies them in the classroom and in practice to improve people’s health and lives, Harper says. Scientific American 250(3): 128-37. Nightingale informs Hewlett that she has forwarded the proof of his pamphlet, "Village Sanitation in India, " to Sir Douglas Galton for his valuable suggestions. “The irony of all of this is that these letters that talk about cleanliness, sanitation and hygiene are as relevant today as they were when she started this work in the 1800s, especially as we work to fight the COVID pandemic.

Five weeks later, in January, UAB finalized an agreement for The Upper Room to donate eight Nightingale letters to the library. “People have called her the first statistician,” Harper says. Nightingale's basic principles of sanitation and hygiene to improve health outcomes remain in use today and are vital to reducing the spread of COVID-19. She recognizes that Hewlett's background would make his views particularly valuable. Nightingale was the one who established the principles of modern nursing and hospital sanitation. While her impact in the field of healthcare is her most recognized accomplishment, Nightingale was also a noted feminist, author, and advocate for the advancements of women’s rights. UAB’s collection includes more than two dozen letters Nightingale wrote to Hewlett from 1867-89, as well as an 1888 letter of reference for him. “When I really looked at these letters and the impact, and how they can continue to influence our faculty, our students and our alumni, it’s a treasure that we have these 58 letters – not just 50 – here in Birmingham that are available to the world,” Harper says.

Balch cites several examples, including an 1870 letter to Madame Julie Salis-Schwabe during the Franco-Prussian War in which Nightingale writes: “People tell me to be thankful that we are ‘not in it’ – And so I am, truly thankful that our country is not in it – but that I am ‘not in it’ is the greatest regret of my life – My whole head & heart & hands are panting to be with those wretched sufferers of the Loire. The Reynolds-Finley Library letters also reflect Nightingale's active role in the formation of the Bombay Village Sanitation Bill. Learn more about these scams and…, Today, we join in with our nation to remember the tragic events of 9/11/01. Global: Health workers silenced, exposed and attacked. The great story continued earlier this year with the addition of eight more Nightingale letters. View this letter.It was the Indian Mutiny of 1857 that originally drew the attention of Florence Nightingale to health conditions in India. is a non-profit organization founded in 2016 by a group of OPHARDT Hygiene employees. The retiree emailed Harper about the letters. Florence Nightingale: Founder of Modern Nursing and Hospital Epidemiology.

Nightingale in Scutari: Her Legacy Reexamined. In 2014, the library became the Reynolds-Finley Historical Library after the children of pioneering geneticist Dr. Wayne H. Finley made a gift for an endowment to continue growing its medical history collections. The entire OPHARDT team would like to acknowledge the dedication, sacrifice and contributions of all healthcare and frontline workers, past and present, working around the clock to help break the chain of infection. A statue of Florence Nightingale, who was born 200 years ago today. Named Florence after the Italian city in which she was born, she rejected her wealthy parents’ wishes and decided to become a nurse – at a time when nurses typically were poor and unskilled and the hospitals they worked in were unsanitary and often viewed as death houses. She also asks for more information about his work at Hurrachee. Harper came to UAB’s School of Nursing in 2005 and took a special interest in the letters and sharing them with the community. (Courtesy of the Reynolds-Finley Historical Library, the University of Alabama at Birmingham), The title page of Florence Nightingale’s “Notes on Nursing,” published in 1859 and still in print. Today, the UAB School of Nursing participates in a variety of Global Health Partnerships and activities and is a designated Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)/World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Center for International Nursing. Balch points to the importance of washing hands and sanitizing surfaces to prevent the spread of coronavirus, key practices that Nightingale advocated in the 1800s with dramatic results. The 200 th birthday of Florence Nightingale This year marks the 200 th anniversary of the birth of one of hand hygiene’s most prominent pioneers, Florence Nightingale . The position he seeks is not noted. Since the onset of the pandemic, more than 3000 healthcare workers in 79 countries have died of COVID-19[i].