Kontakt 2011, 13(1):7-10

Florence Nightingale - a woman, nurse and mathematicianEditorial

Anežka Večeřová^*, Rebeca Lankašová

Lauderova MŠ, ZŠ a gymnázium při Židovské obci v Praze, Belgická 25, Praha 2, ředitelka - Kateřina Dejmalová

The authors introduce Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, also as a pioneer in the field of medical statistics. When Florence Nightingale was helping in British military hospitals in the course of the Crime war (in 1854-1856) she discovered terrible hygienic conditions there, which resulted in a catastrophic mortality. Florence started facing this situation to do her best not only in the hospital, but also in England and directly at the British court. Queen Victory authorized Florence to present her requirements before the King Commission for the Heath of the Army. Florence was supposed to compile a report over few weeks, which could effectively demonstrate the situation in military hospitals. During her work on the report, Florence took advantage of her extensive knowledge in the field of mathematical statistics and asked one of the most important British mathematicians - William Farr - for cooperation. Florence chose a combination of strict data and their graphical processing as the most suitable approach to the demonstration of statistical data to laymen. Florence employed the cake diagram, in which she implemented a number if innovations. Thanks to the use of a statistical procedure formed in a suitable manner, she was able to convince members of the King Commission about considerable gaps in the military health system and this made her possible to facilitate a number of its reforms.

Keywords: Florence Nightingale; hygiene in nursing; medical statistics; cake diagram; history of nursing

Received: March 2, 2011; Accepted: March 16, 2011; Published: March 28, 2011  Show citation