Notes on Nursing

Florence Nightingale was an English nurse commonly known as the founder of modern nursing practices. Born in Italy, she became an experienced nurse and formed many of her opinions while serving in the Crimean War, enrolling in nursing school at age 24 in Germany. She penned Notes on Nursing: What It Is, and What it Is Not in 1859, just a few years after serving in the war, and the work was first published in 1860.

Nightingale intended to provide a guide on what the art of nursing entails and the fundamental things that anyone wishing to be a nurse must know. Instead, she created a pedagogical treatise that today is renowned for being ahead of its time and in many aspects—including the importance of sanitary conditions and a patient’s mental health—remains as relevant today as it was in the middle of the 19th century. It represents one of the first comprehensive takes on Western healthcare and, as such, is foundational to many moral, scientific, and operational aspects of modern medicine. Nightingale’s highly knowledgeable and accessible style and voice, combined with her frequent use of female pronouns to refer to people in medical roles, led to her reputation as an early feminist voice in Western medicine, a field traditionally (and still) biased toward men’s opinions.