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Extra Credit: We need to discover the real Florence Nightingale 100 years after her death

By Suzanne Gordon and Sioban Nelson

Aug. 13 is the 100th anniversary of the death of Florence Nightingale, a fitting time to see who she really was and what she really did.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote of her — in his 1857 poem “Santa Filomena” — as the Lady with the Lamp, who “flitted from room to room” kissing “speechless sufferers” in the “glimmering gloom.” But Nightingale was far more than a devoted do-gooder. She was a radical and visionary health care reformer who revolutionized the organization of hospital care, promoted public health and pioneered the formal education of nurses.

Although she is best known for her work in nursing, today she is most relevant for her focus on patient safety.

For more than 40 years, from the battlefields of Crimea to her invalid bed in London, she waged a relentless campaign to improve health outcomes. “The very first requirement in a hospital,” she wrote, is “that it should do the sick no harm.” To protect patients from harm, she was a pioneer of health statistics and gathered data on infection and mortality rates. She used this data to develop scientific principles that covered everything from hospital design, sanitation, kitchens, diet and, importantly, the organization of care.

Her best-seller, “Notes on Nursing,” which remains in print today, was actually a manual on the prevention of infection and the management of symptoms. It guided everyone involved in the care of the sick, from households to hospitals. Through her efforts, hospitals b

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