Running head: FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE – ENVIRONMENT THEORY 1

Florence Nightingale – Environment Theory

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Institution
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Florence Nightingale – Environmental Theory

Florence Nightingale also was known as "Lady with Lamp," was born in the year

1820 in Florence Italy, and is considered as the first theorist who had a compelling and

transformative character in nursing. Florence Nightingale was a nurse who contributed to

shaping and developing modern nursing practices. She significantly believed that the

environment had a strong influence on patient outcomes, and most of her elements ideas of

the Environment theory have set good examples for nurses who are standards for today's

professions [ CITATION Afa05 \l 2057 ].

Florence believed that offering an appropriate atmosphere was the distinction

inpatient recovery, and the Environmental Theory on this perception (Selander, L. C 1998).

In her writing, Florence addresses the provision of variables for the preservation of an

atmosphere based on favorable to healing and healthy living facilitation. Here are some

instances of this from this theory of nursing environment:

Temperature: Florence suggested that a home should not be too warm or too cold. When

there is an imbalance in temperature, then there is a higher chance of becoming sick due to

being too cold or too warm.

Home Ventilation: Florence believed that people who breathed their air repeatedly without

any new fresh air coming into a home would eventually get sick and stay that way afterward.

She thought that exposure to foul odors would generate "noxious air" to be removed in order

to start the healing process.

Noise: Florence also figured that the healing impact of sleep on the body was highly durable.

She believed that during the first portion of sleep, nurses should never deliberately or

accidentally wake up individuals. Any unnecessary noise was deemed to be a patient's cruel

and unusual punishment.

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Light: Florence also stated that immediate access to sunlight was one of the most

extraordinary things to give a patient could have.

Among others, environmental factors that affect health as identified in theory are pure

water, efficient drainage, cleanliness of the patient and environment, fresh air, and sufficient

food supply. If there is a lack of any of these fields, the patient may experience decreased

health. The function of a nurse in the recovery of a patient is to change the environment to

gradually generate the optimum circumstances for the body of the patient to cure the illness,

[ CITATION And05 \l 2057 ]. In this regard, it would imply minimal noise in some instances and

a particular diet in other instances. All these fields can be modified to assist the person to

achieve their health objectives and become healthy.

In this model, nursing focuses on changing the environment to the patient to influence

changes in his or her health. The nursing theory of the environment is a theory of patient care.

That is, it concentrates on the care of the patient rather than the nursing process, the patient-

nurse connection, or individual nurse connection. The model must, therefore, be tailored to

meet the requirements of individual patients [ CITATION Lou93 \l 2057 ]. Environmental factors

influence various patients distinctive to their circumstances and diseases, and the nurse must

address these variables on a case-by-case basis to ensure that the variables are changed in a

manner that best suits an individual patient and their needs, (Baly, M. 1986).

We conclude that the environmentalist theory of Florence Nightingale has thoughts

that serve today's parameters and its importance is considered a landmark in the history of

nursing, as the environmental paradigm in the model of Nightingale is the most significant

element, understandably. Her observations taught her that unhealthy environments

significantly contribute to ill health and that the environment can be modified to enhance a

patient's circumstances and enable healing to take place. The Modern Nursing Theory of

Nightingale also influenced nursing education. She was the first to recommend that nurses
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should be specifically educated and trained for their health care roles. This enabled nursing

care standards to be established, which helped enhance general patient care.

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References

Andrew MacPherson Pope; Meta A Snyder; Lillian H Mood; Institute of Medicine (U.S.). &

Committee on Enhancing Environmental Health Content in Nursing Practice. (2005).

Nursing, health & the environment: strengthening the relationship to improve the

public's health. Washington, D.C: National Academy Press.

Baly, M. E. (1986). Florence Nightingale and the nursing legacy (pp. 37-8). London: Croom

Helm.

Meleis, A. I. (2005). Theoretical nursing: development and progress. Philadelphia:

Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

Selanders, L. C. (1993). Florence Nightingale: an environmental adaptation theory.

Newbury Park u.a: Sage.

Selanders, L. C. (1998). The power of environmental adaptation: Florence Nightingale's

original theory for nursing practice. Journal of Holistic Nursing, 16(2), 247-263.
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