The Impact of Florence Nightingale on Nursing and Colonialism
The nursing field has been greatly shaped by Florence Nightingale’s legacy for more than a hundred years. However, it’s crucial to comprehend the aspects of the “Lady With the Lamp” that often go unnoticed. Florence Nightingale was born almost three centuries after the foundational years of the British Empire, which commenced in the early 1500s. Her beliefs and actions were significantly molded by the privileged social circles to which her family belonged. Her father was a wealthy white landowner and merchant, while her mother was known to aspire to connect with influential individuals.
In recent years, many of Nightingale’s writings have been digitized, facilitating the identification of her endorsement of white culture’s dominance. She played a pivotal role in advancing nursing as a respected profession and healthcare in general. However, her history has been presented through a lens of white culture, potentially perpetuating the influence of colonization within nursing.
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In the last ten years, a considerable amount of Nightingale’s written works have been digitized, which makes it easier to locate evidence of her belief in the supremacy of white culture. While she made a significant contribution to nursing as a profession and to healthcare as a whole, it is important to recognize that her history has been propagated through a white cultural perspective that could reinforce the colonization of nursing.
Most young women born in the early 1800s did not have access to education. Despite this, Nightingale’s father ensured she received a comprehensive education, which included studying Italian, French, and German. From a young age, Nightingale displayed a keen interest in aiding impoverished and sick individuals in her community. Despite her parents’ objections, she pursued nursing studies at the Lutheran Hospital of Pastor Fliedner in Kaiserwerth, Germany.
In the subsequent years, her complex impact on nursing has left a lasting imprint that is tied to the era of colonization. According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, colonization involves the domination of one group by another. This encompasses the subjugation of one people by another.
A Closer Examination of Nightingale’s Role in Colonialism
It’s essential to acknowledge both Nightingale’s contributions to healthcare and her prejudiced attitudes that had far-reaching effects. This includes her treatment of Indigenous children in the precursor to Canadian residential schools. In her publication “Sanitary Statistics of Native Colonial Schools and Hospitals,” she regarded these children as inferior.
She linked the high mortality rate of these children to their rapid assimilation into British culture. However, she showed no concern for these deaths, stating, “Every society that has been established has had to sacrifice significant portions of its earlier generation to adapt to the new conditions of life that arise due to change.”
Later in her work, she suggested that the deaths were largely attributed to the Indigenous population. The changes resulting from British rule merely accelerated a process of “decay” that had already been initiated by the habits of Indigenous people.
Her actions against the Indigenous people of New Zealand prompted the New Zealand Nurses Organization (NZNO) to label her views on colonization as a “harmful legacy.” The NZNO elucidated how Nightingale’s actions against the Indigenous people of New Zealand led them to cancel commemorations of her 200th birthday.
Her political actions, undertaken at a time when she was venerated as a heroine following the Crimean War, contributed to the genocide of Indigenous people. It is regrettable that her influence on nursing has overshadowed the contributions of other pioneering nurses, such as Mary Seacole, Charlotte Edith Monture, and Mary Mahoney. These individuals were trailblazing advocates who challenged the discriminatory and sexist norms of their era.
Furthermore, Nightingale’s actions also facilitated the colonization of the nursing profession. She perpetuated the trends of elitism and racism that have influenced nursing education. In many regions, nurses have limited autonomy and are considered mere extensions of doctors. This phenomenon is often referred to as the “European style of nursing.”
10 Key Insights into Florence Nightingale’s Impact on Contemporary Nursing
To rid nursing of colonial influences, it’s imperative to recognize both aspects of Nightingale’s legacy: her contributions to the nursing field and the consequences of her biases against Indigenous people and people of color. Many of Nightingale’s influences have become the bedrock upon which our present healthcare system stands.
Even today, prejudices and disparities impact the quality of healthcare provided to Black, Indigenous, and communities of color.
1. Pioneered the First Evidence-Based Nursing School
Nightingale was granted a significant sum of money, approximately $250,000, from the British government following the Crimean War. In 1860, she utilized this fund to establish the Nightingale Training School for Nurses at St. Thomas Hospital in London. She also played a role in shaping the training for midwives and nurses in workhouse infirmaries. These establishments employed the destitute for productive labor.
2. Contributed to Genocidal Actions under British Rule
Despite the fatalities and devastation resulting from British colonialism, Nightingale advised key political figures and endorsed British colonial endeavors. Nevertheless, several of Nightingale’s contemporaries acknowledged and condemned the cruelty associated with colonialism.
Mary Seacole, a British-Jamaican nurse at the time, commented on Nightingale’s rejection of her assistance during the Crimean War. She pondered, “Could American racial biases be influencing this decision? Did these women hesitate to accept my help due to my somewhat darker skin tone?”
Nightingale continued to advocate for imposing British culture on Indigenous people, arguing that anything else would be “preserving their primitiveness at the expense of preserving their lives.”
3. Opposed Higher Education for Nursing
Despite founding a nursing program, Nightingale opposed advanced education that promoted women’s independence. Instead, she remained committed to patient care grounded in traditional feminine virtues of patience, compliance, and cleanliness.
She viewed nursing as an extension of women’s societal roles, an outlook that hindered female education and reinforced male dominance.
4. Advisor to Colonial Authorities in Australia and New Zealand
Nightingale served as an advisor to the Governor of New Zealand and provided counsel to authorities in other regions.
In this capacity, she championed colonialism and advocated for the enforced relocation of Maori tribes in New Zealand to European settlements.
She stated, “The objective should be to gradually instill better habits in them and gradually civilize them.”
5. Retained Belief in the Miasma Theory of Disease Until Her Passing
She adhered to the theory that foul odors and filth breed disease, a belief she held until her death in 1910. She attributed the responsibility for disease to Indigenous people and disregarded accounts of influenza outbreaks among Indigenous communities following interactions with Europeans.
Instead, she advised authorities to focus efforts elsewhere to promote health. In her writings, she attributed the decline in population to what she perceived as inherent shortcomings in Indigenous individuals.
6. Earned the Moniker “The Lady With the Lamp”
Soldiers during the Crimean War affectionately referred to Nightingale as the “Lady With the Lamp.”
After dedicating her days to ensuring the cleanliness of hospitals and caring for patients, she would walk the corridors at night holding a lamp to attend to patients. Her tireless compassion provided solace to soldiers, and her efforts lowered the hospital’s death rate by two-thirds.
7. Embraced the Notion of Cleanliness as a Virtue
In the Victorian era, many believed that cleanliness was closely linked to virtue. Nightingale shared this perspective. She was among the first to advocate for thorough handwashing. To this day, diligent handwashing remains a fundamental and effective measure for preventing the transmission of diseases.
However, Nightingale distorted this adage, attributing sickness and disease to the marginalized, poor, and Indigenous populations. She wrote, “When we adhere to all of God’s cleanliness laws … health is the outcome. When we defy these laws, illness ensues.”
8. Catalyzed the Formation of the Royal Commission for Army Health
After the Crimean War, Nightingale documented her observations on healthcare in the field in an extensive 830-page report titled “Notes on Matters Affecting the Health, Efficiency and Hospital Administration of the British Army.” Her recommendations for reforms in military hospitals prompted a reorganization of the administrative wing of the War Office. This led to the establishment of the Royal Commission for the Health of the Army, tasked with investigating the sanitary conditions within the army.
9. Elite Upbringing Contributed to Her Colonial Mindset
Nightingale’s perspectives were shaped by her privileged upbringing. However, some of her contemporaries, even those from elite backgrounds, rebelled against colonial attitudes and ideologies. They chose to advocate against racism, colonialism, and sexism.
Nightingale also had the opportunity to take this path. But despite her upbringing, she actively embraced ideals that resulted in the suffering and demise of Indigenous children, adults, and people of color.
10. Nursing Transformed into a Respected Calling
Following her service in the Crimean War, Nightingale received accolades as a heroine and became a celebrated figure. Many young women aspired to follow in her footsteps. Even those from higher social classes enrolled in her training school, raising nursing to a prestigious profession.
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