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Historians and Scholars on Florence Nightingale History

The following includes historians and their publications on Florence Nightingale. 

Catherine Ceniza Choy

Publications highlights

  • Choy, C. C. (2003). "Exported to care": A transnational history of filipino nurse migration to the united states. Immigration research for a new century: Multidisciplinary perspectives (pp. 113-133)
  • Choy, C. C. (2006). A Filipino woman in America: The life and work of Encarnacion Alzona. Genre, 39(3), 127-140. doi:10.1215/00166928-39-3-127
  • Choy, C. C. (2005). Asian American history: Reflections on imperialism, immigration, and "the body". Pinay power: Peminist critical theory (pp. 70-84) doi:10.4324/9780203020494
  • Choy, C. C. (2010). Nurses across borders: Foregrounding international migration in nursing history. Nursing History Review, 18, 12-28. doi:10.1891/1062-8061.18.12
  • Choy, C. C. (2003). Relocating struggle: Filipino nurses organize in the united states. Asian/Pacific islander american women: A historical anthology (pp. 335-349)
  • Nazareno, J., Yoshioka, E., Adia, A. C., Restar, A., Operario, D., & Choy, C. C. (2021). From imperialism to inpatient care: Work differences of filipino and white registered nurses in the united states and implications for COVID-19 through an intersectional lens. Gender, Work and Organization, 28(4), 1426-1446. doi:10.1111/gwao.12657

Lynn McDonald 

Lynn McDonald, former member of Parliament: https://lop.parl.ca/sites/ParlInfo/default/en_CA/People/Profile?personId=10059

McDonald, L (2021). “Statue of ‘Nurse’ Mary Seacole will do Florence Nightingale a Disservice.” The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/jun/08/mary-seacole-statue-florence-nightingale-disservice

Mary Seacole may have treated the troops, but she was not a nurse, so commemorating her at St Thomas' hospital seems odd

McDonald, L. (1998). "Florence Nightingale. Passionate statistician." J Holist Nurs 16(2): 267-277; discussion 278-280. DOI: 10.1177/089801019801600215

Nightingale's passionate commitment to statistics was based on her faith in a god of order, who created a world that ran by law. God's laws could be known through research, as a result of which suitable interventions to better the world could be applied. Statistics were a vital component in her holistic approach to health care as a system. They served both to indicate serious problems and to assist in policy making, and then again to monitor the effects of the new policies. She pioneered the use of evaluative statistics and saw reforms achieved as a result of her advocacy. This article explores three key aspects selected from Nightingale's more than 40 years of applied statistical work: her adaptation of Quetelet's methodological foundations, the use of statistics in monitoring public health care systems, and her pioneering study of maternal mortality in childbirth.

McDonald, L. (2001). "Florence Nightingale and the early origins of evidence-based nursing." Evid Based Nurs 4(3): 68-69. DOI: 10.1136/ebn.4.3.68 https://ebn.bmj.com/content/4/3/68.long

Florence Nightingale is now a much ignored historical figure. The publication of the Collected Works of Florence Nightingale by Wilfred Laurier University Press, beginning in 2001, will outline her enormous contribution not only to the foundation of the nursing profession but also to the establishment of a public healthcare system. The Collected Works will include her published works and many unpublished letters and notes. Not the least of the areas where quite a new Nightingale will appear is in evidence-based nursing, a term that was not in use in her day, but a concept central to her own theory of nursing and health care.

McDonald, L. (2003). "The first professional." Nurs Manag (Harrow) 10(6): 35. DOI: 10.7748/nm.10.6.35.s14 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27718841/

FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE (1820-1910) is known as a major founder of the modern nursing profession, and an expert on hospitals and public health. Some attention has been paid to her work in applied statistics but little to her expertise in methodology, philosophy, theology, social reform and militarism, or her extensive writings on India and more than modest commentaries on women's issues.

McDonald, L. (2006). "Florence Nightingale on Public Health Care : Collected Works of Florence Nightingale, Volume 6." http://public.ebookcentral.proquest.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=685772

This sixth volume in the Collected Works of Florence Nightingale reports Nightingale's considerable accomplishments in the development of a public health care system based on health promotion and disease prevention. It follows directly from her understanding of social science and broader social reform activities, which were related in Society and Politics (Volume 5). Public Health Care includes a critical edition of Notes on Nursing for the Labouring Classes, papers on mortality in aboriginal schools and hospitals, and on rural health. It reports much unknown material on Nightingale's signal.

McDonald, L. (2006). "Florence Nightingale on Women, Medicine, Midwifery and Prostitution : Collected Works of Florence Nightingale, Volume 8." http://public.ebookcentral.proquest.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=6...

Volume 8: Florence Nightingale on Women, Medicine, Midwifery and Prostitution makes available a great range of Florence Nightingale's work on women: her pioneering study of maternal mortality in childbirth (Introductory Notes on Lying-in Institutions), her opposition to the regulation of prostitution through the Contagious Diseases Acts (attempts to stop the legislation and otherwise to facilitate the voluntary treatment of syphilitic prostitutes), her views on gender roles, marriage and measures for income security for women and excerpts from her draft (abandoned) novel.

McDonald, L. (2010). "Florence Nightingale : Collected Works of Florence Nightingale, Volume 14." https://www.wlupress.wlu.ca/Series/C/Collected-Works-of-Florence-Nightin...

Florence Nightingale is famous as the "lady with the lamp" in the Crimean War, 1854-56. There is a massive amount of literature on this work, but, as editor Lynn McDonald shows, it is often erroneous, and films and press reporting on it have been even less accurate. The Crimean War reports on Nightingale's correspondence from the war hospitals and on the staggering amount of work she did post-war to ensure that the appalling death rate from disease (higher than that from bullets) did not recur. This volume contains much on Nightingale's efforts to achieve real reforms.

McDonald, L. (2010). "Florence Nightingale a Hundred Years on: who she was and what she was not." Womens Hist Rev 19(5): 721-740. DOI: 10.1080/09612025.2010.509934 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21344737/

This article reviews Florence Nightingale's work 100 years after her death, based on surviving writing compiled for The Collected Works of Florence Nightingale. Described are her founding of a new profession for women, based on patient care, her pioneering work in statistics and data analysis and her bold reform of the workhouse infirmaries. A section on historiography focuses on the negative impact of F. B. Smith's attack on Nightingale in 1982 and Monica Baly's progressively more negative interpretations from the 1970s to her death in 1998. Note is made of future research opportunities .

McDonald, L. (2010). "Florence Nightingale: passionate statistician." J Holist Nurs 28(1): 92-98. DOI: 10.1177/0898010109358769 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20467034/

Nightingale's passionate commitment to statistics was based on her faith in a god of order, who created a world that ran by law. God's laws could be known through research, as a result of which suitable interventions to better the world could be applied. Statistics were a vital component in her holistic approach to health care as a system. They served both to indicate serious problems and to assist in policy making, and then again to monitor the effects of the new policies. She pioneered the use of evaluative statistics and saw reforms achieved as a result of her advocacy. This article explores three key aspects selected from Nightingale's more than 40 years of applied statistical work: her adaptation of Quetelet's methodological foundations, the use of statistics in monitoring public health care systems, and her pioneering study of maternal mortality in childbirth.

McDonald, L. (2013). "The timeless wisdom of Florence Nightingale." Can Nurse 109(2): 36. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23505851/

Forget about the 28-bed wards, the starched aprons and that lamp of hers (the one she used in the Scutari Barrack Hospital was actually of the Home Hardware variety) — all long relegated to nursing history. It's time to reboot the perception of Florence Nightingale as a visionary whose ideas are valid today.

McDonald, L. (2013). "What would Florence Nightingale say?" Br J Nurs 22(9): 542. DOI: 10.12968/bjon.2013.22.9.542 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23752630/

 No abstract available

McDonald, L. (2014). "Florence Nightingale and Irish nursing." J Clin Nurs 23(17-18): 2424-2433. DOI: 10.1111/jocn.12598 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24702796/

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To challenge statements made about 'Careful Nursing' as a 'distinctive system' of nursing established by the Irish Sisters of Mercy, prior to Florence Nightingale, and which is said to have influenced her. BACKGROUND: Numerous publications have appeared claiming the emergence of a 'distinctive system' of nursing as 'Ireland's legacy to nursing', which, it is claimed, influenced Nightingale's system. One paper argues that the Irish system has its philosophical roots in Thomist philosophy. Several papers argue the ongoing relevance of the Irish system, not Nightingale's, for contemporary nursing theory and practice. Nightingale's influence on and legacy to Irish nursing are not acknowledged. DESIGN: A Discursive paper. METHODS: Archival and published sources were used to compare the nursing systems of Florence Nightingale and the Irish Sisters of Mercy, with particular attention to nursing during the Crimean War. RESULTS: Claims were challenged of a 'distinctive system' of nursing established by the Irish Sisters of Mercy in the early nineteenth century, and of its stated influence on the nursing system of Florence Nightingale. The contention of great medical satisfaction with the 'distinctive' system is refuted with data showing that the death rate at the Koulali Hospital, where the Irish sisters nursed, was the highest of all the British war hospitals during the Crimean War. Profound differences between the two systems are outlined. CONCLUSIONS: Claims for a 'distinctive' Irish system of nursing fail for lack of evidence. Nightingale's principles and methods, as they evolved over the first decade of her school's work, remain central to nursing theory and practice. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: Nightingale's insistence on respect for patients and high ethical standards remains relevant to practice no less so as specific practices change with advances in medical knowledge and practice.

McDonald, L. (2014). "Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole on nursing and health care." J Adv Nurs 70(6): 1436-1444. DOI: 10.1111/jan.12291 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24224570/

AIMS: The purpose of this article is to correct inaccurate information about both Mary Seacole and Florence Nightingale, material that promotes Seacole as a pioneer nurse and heroine, while either ignoring Nightingale or trivializing her contribution. BACKGROUND: Nursing journals have been prominent in promoting inaccurate accounts of the contribution of Seacole to nursing. Some have intermittently published positive material about Nightingale, but none has published redress. DESIGN: A discussion paper. DATA: Primary sources from 1855-2012 were found, which contradict some key claims made about Seacole. Further sources - not included here - are identified, with a website reference. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING: It is argued that Nightingale remains relevant as a model for nurses, with the many crises in patient care and continuing challenges of hospital safety. CONCLUSION: Greater accuracy and honesty are required in reporting about nursing heroes. Without these, great ideas and examples can be lost to nursing and health care.

McDonald, L. (2014). "Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole: which is the forgotten hero of health care and why?" Scott Med J 59(1): 67-70. DOI: 10.1177/0036933013518276 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24413931/

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: This paper aims at correcting misinformation in circulation portraying Mary Seacole as a nurse, Crimean War heroine, and health care pioneer, even, for some, a replacement for Florence Nightingale, who really was a health care pioneer as well as being the major founder of the modern profession of nursing. METHODS AND RESULTS: The article focuses on the claims for Seacole made by C. Short in Scottish Medical Journal, 2011. It reports, using primary sources, on what Seacole actually did--running a business for officers, with kind acts on the side--short of constituting heroism, pioneering health care or nursing. CONCLUSION: The article concludes with remarks on how Nightingale came to be forgotten as a health care pioneer, with comments on the two major sources that attacked her reputation, F.B. Smith in 1982, and Hugh Small in 1998. Detailed refutations in peer-reviewed sources are referenced. Finally, it is suggested that recent scandals in English hospital care, documented in the Francis Report, may provoke a revival of interest in Nightingale's principles and methods.

McDonald, L. (2014). Florence Nightingale At First Hand Vision, Power, Legacy. https://www.amazon.com/Florence-Nightingale-At-First-Hand-ebook/dp/B00CK...

Florence Nightingale is one of the most famous figures in modern history. Yet much of what we know of her emanates from unreliable second-hand accounts, and from a misreading of the primary sources. Florence Nightingale at First Hand by Lynn McDonald, editor of Nightingale's Collected Works, and the world's foremost Nightingale authority, aims to put this right. This is a book which reports what Florence Nightingale said and did, based on her writing, of which a massive amount survives, scattered in over two hundred archives throughout the world. Published to commemorate the centenary of Nightingale's death, McDonald's study presents a Florence Nightingale for the twenty-first century, as an author of great style and wit, a systems thinker and pioneering public health reformer - the heroine and nurse were only the start.

McDonald, L. (2016). "Mary Seacole and claims of evidence-based practice and global influence." Nurs Open 3(1): 5-18. DOI: 10.1002/nop2.32 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27708811/

AIM: The aim of this paper was to explore the contribution of Mary Seacole to nursing and health care, notably in comparison with that of Florence Nightingale. BACKGROUND: Much information is available, in print and electronic, that presents Mary Seacole as a nurse, even as a pioneer nurse and leader in public health care. Her own memoir and copious primary sources, show rather than she was a businesswoman, who gave assistance during the Crimean War, mainly to officers. Florence Nightingale's role as the major founder of the nursing profession, a visionary of public health care and key player in advocating 'environmental' health, reflected in her own Notes on Nursing, is ignored or misconstrued. DESIGN: Discussion paper. DATA SOURCES: British newspapers of 19th century and The Times digital archive; Australian and New Zealand newspaper archives, published memoirs, letters and biographies/autobiographies of Crimean War participants were the major sources. RESULTS: Careful examination of primary sources, notably digitized newspaper sources, British, Australian and New Zealand, show that the claims for Seacole's 'global influence' in nursing do not hold, while her use of 'practice-based evidence' might better be called self-assessment. Primary sources, moreover, show substantial evidence of Nightingale's contributions to nursing and health care, in Australia, New Zealand, the USA and many countries and the UK much material shows her influence also on hospital safety and health promotion.

McDonald, L. (2020). "Florence Nightingale: The Making of a Hospital Reformer." Herd 13(2): 25-31. DOI: 10.1177/1937586720918239 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32364841/

OBJECTIVES: The first of two articles is to show how Florence Nightingale became a leading, effective hospital reformer. AIM: The aim of the first paper is to relate how Nightingale was influenced by the great defects in the war hospitals of the Crimean War (1854-1856) and how she learned the lessons from those defects to set a different course. The article shows how her famous Notes on Nursing is a positive treatment of the lessons learned, turning the sanitary defects, notably in ventilation, into chapters of the book. The importance of the pavilion model of hospital design is highlighted. There is coverage of the advances made by Semmelweis at the Vienna General Hospital. METHODS: This is a purely historical study drawing on the extensive publications by Nightingale, augmented by her (massive) surviving correspondence and notes. The search for archival materials was done for the publication of the 16-volume Collected Works of Florence Nightingale, written by the author of this article. The collected works was peer reviewed, and the research process succeeded in locating material in more than 200 archives worldwide.

McDonald, L. (2020). "Florence Nightingale's Influence on Hospital Design, Hospitalism, Hospital Diseases, and Hospital Architects." Herd 13(3): 30-35. DOI: 10.1177/1937586720931058 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32508124/

Florence Nightingale, soon after the Crimean War (1854–1856), became the leading hospital reformer. She was not the first to take on the cause, but she did by far the most to effect change. Preceding her was Dr. John Roberton who began to give papers on hospital reform to the Manchester Statistical Society in 1855. Soon each was promoting the other’s work. James Y. Simpson, an Edinburgh surgeon, in the 1860s published extensively on the subject, using the term “hospitalism” and calling for the use of very small, temporary, iron buildings as the best means of prevention. He and Nightingale exchanged views on surgical outcomes in 1869. At the time, the surgery could be a success, but nearly half of postsurgery patients died of gangrene. The term “hospitalism” is at least recognizable English, as opposed to “nosocomial disease,” from the Italian for hospital, or “iatrogenic,” from the Greek for doctor.

McDonald, L. (2020). "Florence Nightingale's public health agenda." Perspect Public Health 140(3): 137-138. DOI: 10.1177/1757913920916501 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32414309/

            No abstract available

Nightingale, F. and L. McDonald (2003). "Florence Nightingale on society and politics, philosophy, science, education and literature." https://www.deslibris.ca/ID/402474

Florence Nightingale on Society and Politics, Philosophy, Science, Education and Literature, Volume 5 in the Collected Works of Florence Nightingale, is the main source of Nightingale's work on the methodology of social science and her views on social reform. Here we see how she took her "call to service" into practice: by first learning how the laws of God's world operate, one can then determine how to intervene for good. There is material on medical statistics, the census, pauperism and Poor Law reform, the need for income security measures and better housing, on crime, gender and the family.

Nightingale, F. and L. McDonald (2004). "Florence Nightingale on public health care." http://www.deslibris.ca/ID/405771

This sixth volume in the Collected Works of Florence Nightingale reports Nightingale’s considerable accomplishments in the development of a public health care system based on health promotion and disease prevention. It follows directly from her understanding of social science and broader social reform activities, which were related in Society and Politics (Volume 5). Public Health Care includes a critical edition of Notes on Nursing for the Labouring Classes, papers on mortality in aboriginal schools and hospitals, and on rural health. It reports much unknown material on Nightingale’s signal contribution of bringing professional nursing into the dreaded workhouse infirmaries. This collection presents letters and notes on a wide range of issues from specific diseases to germ theory, and relates some of her own extensive work as a nurse practitioner, which included organizing referrals to doctors and providing related care.

Nightingale, F. and L. McDonald (2012). "Florence Nightingale: An Introduction to Her Life and Family : Collected Works of Florence Nightingale, Volume 1." https://catalogue.solent.ac.uk/openurl/44SSU_INST/44SSU_INST:VU1?u.ignore_date_coverage=true&rft.mms_id=9997119384004796

Florence Nightingale: An Introduction to Her Life and Family introduces the Collected Works by giving an overview of Nightingale's life and the faith that guided it and by outlining the main social reform concerns on which she worked from her call to service at age sixteen to old age. This volume reports correspondence (selected from the thousands of surviving letters) with her mother, father and sister and a wide extended family. There is material on Nightingale's domestic arrangements, from recipes, cat care and relations with servants to her contributions to charities, church and social reform causes. Much new and original material comes to light, and a remarkably different portrait of Nightingale, one with a more nuanced view of her family relationships, emerges.

Nightingale, F., et al. (2006). "Florence Nightingale on health in India." http://www.deslibris.ca/ID/420393

            No abstract available

Nightingale, F., et al. (2007). Florence Nightingale on social change in India. Waterloo (Ont.), Wilfrid Laurier University Press. https://www.wlupress.wlu.ca/Books/F/Florence-Nightingale-on-Social-Chang...

Social Change in India shows the shift of focus that occurred during Florence Nightingale’s more than forty years of work on public health in India. While the focus in the preceding volume, Health in India, was top-down reform, notably in the Royal Commission on the Sanitary State of the Army in India, this book documents concrete proposals for self-government, especially at the municipal level, and the encouragement of leading Indian nationals themselves. Famine and related epidemics continue to be issues, demonstrating the need for public works like irrigation and for greater self-help measures like “health missioners” and self-government.