Each year around the globe, International Nurses' Day is celebrated on 12 May, the anniversary of Florence Nightingale's birth. This year is particularly special because the anniversary falls during the World Health Organization's International Year of the Nurse and Midwife, which has been extended into 2021.
Through Nightingale's creation of a school for nursing and her writings, she set the direction for developing standards of practice for nursing care, along with establishing the development of nursing as a professional and respected career for women. She was a determined nursing leader who created visionary changes at a time when women were only beginning to be acknowledged for their contributions to society. She was a passionate advocate of education for nurses.
As a leader, Nightingale demonstrated courage as she took great risks in order to instigate change. She had the capability to communicate that there was a need for reform and was at the forefront of providing improved healthcare and education. She showed particular devotion to the treatment of women and children.
A different view of nursing
Nightingale's definition of nursing was at odds with the Victorian physicians' view of a nurse as a submissive handmaiden, a minion. Instead, Nightingale proposed a more active role for nurses, who would focus not only on the physical needs of a patient, their health and illness, but also on highlighting the need to consider the spiritual, emotional, intellectual and social components of the person. The nurse's role she advocated is to observe, attend to and provide direct and continuous service to the sick, regardless of their environment, be this in hospital or in the person's home. Her focus was always on the needs of the patient.
Nursing is a distinct profession that is separate from that of physicians. Nightingale believed that:
‘Medicine … assists nature … and does nothing more. And what nursing has to do … is to put the patient in the best condition for nature to act upon him.’
This year, we are celebrating International Nurses' Day in the context of responding to the global COVID-19 pandemic, which has left no nation untouched. Now, more than ever, Nightingale and her appreciation of the physical and psychological environment of the hospital and home is even more relevant.
A holistic approach
Nightingale's in-depth scientific and technical knowledge of hygiene, along with her understanding of a holistic approach to care, health and wellbeing, remain important. Today, these underpinning essential attributes of nursing, these key approaches to safe and effective care, are among some of the reasons why nurses are so highly respected in all clinical settings. Nightingale's use of data (she was a recognised healthcare statistician) to improve and develop infection control practice is central to our approach at the Gibraltar Health Authority.
Care and compassion
Nurses are present at some of life's most valued moments and at some of its most catastrophic. Our experience of the pandemic has only reinforced this. Contemporary nursing practice still means (as it did in the mid-19th century) that nurses serve humanity in how they act and how they safeguard the health and wellbeing of people and communities locally, nationally and internationally.
At every site, on every ward and in every service I witness nurses who are caring and compassionate and who are using specialist nursing knowledge to ensure care is safe and responsive to needs. I am privileged to work alongside you all.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all nurses and midwives around the globe for the contribution they make to society and, in particular, across the breadth and depth of health and social care in Gibraltar, who are working tirelessly at the frontline and also behind the scenes with the express intention of improving the lives of our citizens. Thank you for all that you do and will continue to do as we respond to the needs of the people we have the privilege to care for.