Florence Nightingale once said: “the first requirement in a hospital is that it does not harm the sick”. This quote not only applies to Nightingale's experiences during the Crimean War, but rings true today as well. Nightingale's revolutionary ideals, which emphasized a holistic approach to the healthcare environment and the importance of nursing education and training, continue to have a significant impact on modern healthcare. According to Nightingale's environmental theory, the hospital environment should promote and aid the patient's healing process through the provision of many factors, of which the five most significant are: clean air, pure water, efficient drainage, cleanliness and sufficient light. Nightingale's theory states that altering the patient's environment will provide optimal conditions for healing and, therefore, will have a positive impact on the patient's health. In other words, the hospital environment should be therapeutic and calm for patients, without causing them any harm during the healing process. Nightingale's environmental theory places emphasis on both patient care and the nursing process. His revolutionary theory of patient care played a critical role in influencing the primary focus of a nurse's role as a caregiver. Additionally, Florence Nightingale, often called the founder of modern nursing or the Mother of Nursing, transformed the nursing profession by raising the standards and educational expectations for the job. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayFlorence Nightingale was born on May 12, 1920 in Florence, Italy, to a wealthy English family. Due to her social status, she was educated by her father who taught her history, mathematics, geography and how to speak Latin, Greek and Italian. Despite her parents' expectations that she follow their rules and regulations regarding marriage and social life, Florence had other ideas. At the age of sixteen he received a “call” from God to do something special to help others. As he grew up, he gained an interest in healthcare. In her early twenties, against her parents' wishes, Nightingale decided to become a nurse so she could care for the sick and poor. She attended nursing school at a famous hospital in Germany with some of her friends. Paradoxically, upon returning to England in 1851 as an experienced and successful nurse, her main nursing priority was providing care for her parents and sister who had fallen ill. In 1853, Nightingale began working as superintendent for a private hospital in London, caring for many sick people affected by a severe cholera epidemic. Through this experience, Nightingale developed effective nursing and leadership skills that helped her forge the path of her future leading her to become one of the most influential leaders in nursing from the second half of the 17th to the mid-19th century. The significant turning point in Nightingale's career occurred in 1854 at the start of the Crimean War, where she served as coordinator and leader of nurses. The British were unprepared for the large number of sick and wounded soldiers. Therefore, war camp hospitals were horrendous. As a result, mortality rates were extremely high. Nightingale, who was a close friend of the Secretary of War for England, was asked to organize and manage a group of nurses at an army field hospital in Scutari. When Nightingale and her nurses arrived forfirst time in the hospital, the hospital was understaffed, overcrowded with patients, unsanitary, and undersupplied with medical supplies. Nightingale and her nursing brigade made it their mission to improve conditions at the military hospital. Within six months, they transformed the unsanitary hospital into a healthy, therapeutic environment by providing elements of “cleanliness, sanitation, nutritious food, and comfort to patients.”patients… such as writing letters home for patients,” and in effects decreased the mortality rate of British soldiers. Florence Nightingale's experience during the war highlighted how unsanitary environments can greatly influence and cause a deterioration in patients' health. For this reason, when Nightingale returned to England in 1856, she continued her efforts to improve hospital environments. In 1859, he helped found the Army Medical College in Chatham. That same year, using the same foundations she implemented to improve the military hospital environment, Nightingale wrote and published her book, Notes on Nursing: What it is, and What it is Not, in which she created and officially established her theory environmental. focuses on ten main concepts that according to Nightingale greatly influence the patient's environment in relation to his health: ventilation and heating, light and noise, cleanliness of the area, health of homes, bed and bedding, personal cleanliness, variety, offering of hope and advice, food, and observation. The theory states that the deficiency of any of these factors causes a worsening of the patient's health. Thus, by modifying or improving the patient's environment, a nurse can influence change in the patient's overall health status. According to the theory, if each of the environmental factors are satisfied in a patient's healthcare environment, then the environment is considered therapeutic and the patient's anxiety and stress levels will be reduced, thus causing a state of accelerated recovery process of the patient. In addition to environmental factors, Nightingale also makes seven assumptions to define nursing and nursing expectations which are: 1) Humanity can achieve perfection, 2) Nursing is a calling, 3) Nursing is an art and a science, 4) Nursing is achieved through environmental alteration, 5) Nursing requires a specific educational basis, 6) Natural laws, and 7) Nursing is distinct and separate from medicine. Nightingale's theory is often referred to as patient care theory because she chose not to focus exclusively on the nursing process, the nurse-patient relationship, or the needs of the individual nurse. He chose instead to focus on how caring for the patient's environment and specific individual needs plays an important role in developing and maintaining a therapeutic environment (Petiprin, 2016). While Nightingale may have developed her theory in the 19th century in an effort to improve hospital environments, her beliefs and claims are still applicable to modern medical facilities and nursing practices. Although modern technology and medical developments have changed the duties and expectations of a nurse, many key attributes that Nightingale identified in her theory as essential to protecting a patient's environment are still relevant today. His environmental theory had an influential impact on hygiene, which today is a priority in many hospitals regarding patient care, and is the sole basis of established infection protocols for both standards-based and standard-based precautions. based on transmission. Standards-based precautions, such as hygienehands, good cough etiquette, the disinfecting equipment used by a patient, the use of personal protective equipment when necessary, and many other types of precautions are used with all patients. Transmission-based precautions, such as droplet, airborne, and contact precautions, are used for patients known to have an infectious agent to prevent the spread of the infectious agent to other patients and health care members. With infection protocols in place, many healthcare-associated illnesses and infections can be avoided. Conversely, lack of cleanliness and hygiene can lead to an increase in hospital-acquired infections and diseases, a serious problem that still exists in modern healthcare due to “poor standards of cleaning effectiveness”. Other practices inspired by Nightingale's environmental theory that are still in place today are exposure to nature and sunlight and reducing environmental stressors such as poor air quality and glaring lights. Many modern hospitals and long-term care facilities have enclosed courtyards that allow patients access to nature and exposure to sunlight. Additionally, most hospitals have made targeted efforts to make their locations more patient-friendly by reducing environmental stressors such as poor air quality and glaring lights. In most hospitals, air is ventilated strategically to prevent the spread of airborne pathogens throughout the healthcare facility. For example, if a patient is on airborne precautions, they are placed in a negative pressure room so that the air they breathe is not recirculated outside into the hallway. Both light and air quality were also important concepts in nightingale theory. Most hospitals have lights that can be controlled based on the situation and time of day. In many hospitals, in the evening hours, light levels are reduced and the light has warmer tones. Therefore, there are many practices still in place in hospitals today because of the standards and expectations that Nightingale not only advocated in her nursing practice but also outlined in her Environmental Theory. One of the seven assumptions of Nightingale's Environmental Theory places specific emphasis on nursing education and training by stating that nursing requires a specific educational foundation. In 1860, in an effort to make “nursing a viable and respectable option for women who desired employment outside the home,” (Selanders, n.d.) Nightingale became one of the pioneers of nursing education by founding her own school, based on the his theoretical beliefs, which was called The Nightingale School of Nursing. Nightingale believed that nursing education programs should have both theoretical and clinical special educational components, should be controlled by the school and not the hospital, and should have a basic scientific basis. Furthermore, Nightingale believed that nursing students should be regularly assessed for competence and trained by specialist nurses in education. Most nursing education programs today require prerequisite science courses, are vetted by hospital-accredited schools, offer courses with both classroom and clinical components, employ experienced nurses with a teaching certification to instruct their students, and regularly evaluate their their skills using both written and practical exams (“American Nursing: An Introduction to the Past”). Since most programs.