Florence Nightingale and the Birth of Professional Nursing

This is a new six-volume set of writings by Nightingale and her contemporaries on nursing and health care in nineteenth-century England. Topics include hospital nursing, district nursing and education, all of which underwent a transformation from the mid-nineteenth century onwards as nursing became professionalized and began to enjoy increased prestige, thanks in large part to the reforming efforts of Florence Nightingale.

Nightingale's thoughts are supplemented by those of Elizabeth Garrett on hospital nursing, J. Clarke Jervoise on infection, Arthur Cotton on conditions in India, and Mrs Dacre Craven and William Rathbone on district nursing. Historically, Nightingale is an important figure in nursing and sanitary reform; she published copiously in these areas, using her own experiences in England and the Crimea as a basis for her critique of medicine and medical care and for her recommendations for improvement; she promoted the professionalization of nursing; she sought to improve the conditions of hospitals by actively promoting principles of sanitation; and she was elevated to the status of national heroine during the Crimean War.

Nightingale was prominent as a critic, commentator and reformer of hospitals and nursing. Her writings address the relevant issues confronted by individuals who sought to elevate nursing to a respected profession, and they offer insight into what was perceived to be a woman's special role in the healing art, the often fraught nature of the nurse's relationship to medicine, and the sanitary conditions in hospitals and homes where people lived, died and nursed the ill. This major set is edited and introduced by Dr Lori Williamson, and will be of interest for academics in the history of medicine, nursing, sanitation, social welfare, and gender studies.