Off the Charts

Florence Comes to Constantinople…And I Come to Istanbul

By Sue Hassmiller, PhD, RN, FAAN, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Senior Adviser for Nursing (from an ongoing series of posts by Hassmiller, who’s spending her summer vacation retracing crucial steps in Florence Nightingale’s innovative career)

As I enter the city of Istanbul today, I am tired. Almost immediately I catch myself and remember that it took me just 3.5 hours to fly from London to Istanbul and it took Ms. Nightingale almost a month to sail here (Istanbul was called Constantinople at the time). She was sick most of the time, but resolute in her mission. I look around at the airport and see that all I come into contact with are standing upright, while those Nightingale came into contact with were mostly horizontal. […]

Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor2016-11-21T13:16:30-05:00July 21st, 2010|Nursing|1 Comment

Ms. Nightingale as an Applied Statistician

By Sue Hassmiller, PhD, RN, FAAN (latest in a series of posts by Hassmiller, who’s spending her summer vacation retracing crucial steps in Florence Nightingale’s innovative career)

Here at the home of Florence Nightingale, Embley Park (for more on Embley Park, see last week’s blog post), approximately 100 people have convened to study the impact of the “Lady with the Lamp.” The lady herself was multifaceted, and so is this crowd of scholars. There are nurse leaders, of course, but also museum curators, historians, educators, and biographers. They are all interested in their own piece, but also in how their piece fits into the bigger whole of her life. Today we heard Professor Thomas from the University of Southampton School of Business discuss her contributions as an applied statistician.

Representing mortality. Early in her life, Ms. Nightingale identified the need for hospitals and healthcare systems to collect and use data to improve care. She asked what use are statistics “if we don’t know what to make of them?” She is credited with developing the famous “coxcomb” illustration, which was a multidimensional way of depicting mortality rates. She used statistics at Scutari Hospital (also called Selimiye Barracks) in Turkey to guide her actions and used statistics and data in the London Times to […]

Guest Author2016-11-21T13:16:32-05:00July 20th, 2010|health care policy, nursing history, nursing perspective|1 Comment

Florence Nightingale and the Red Cross

By Sue Hassmiller, PhD, RN, FAAN, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Senior Adviser for Nursing (this is the latest in a series of posts by Hassmiller, who’s spending her summer vacation retracing crucial steps in Florence Nightingale’s innovative career)

British Red Cross thrift store, Romsey, England

Anyone who knows me knows I am a devotee of the American Red Cross. After the Red Cross helped me find my parents after a Mexico City earthquake nearly 35 years ago, volunteering for them is how I spend my free time and my money . . . So when I travel, I always check in with the Red Cross, no matter the state, no matter the country, and tell them my story, and tell them: Thank you and keep up the good work. […]

Guest Author2016-11-21T13:16:34-05:00July 19th, 2010|Nursing, nursing history|3 Comments

Tech, EBP Buzzwords Among Nurse Researchers

By Shawn Kennedy, AJN interim editor-in-chief

As a lover of history, especially nursing history, I’ve been following Sue Hassmiller’s posts retracing the steps of Florence Nightingale with great interest and a bit of envy.

Well I went on a trip, too—to Sigma Theta Tau International’s 21^st International Nursing Research Congress in Orlando. I was astounded by the truly international aspect of the meeting—many meetings say they are international if there’s a few hardy travelers from abroad, but there were many presenters, poster presenters and attendees from outside the United States.

What AHRQ does. Carolyn Clancy, director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), was the good choice for keynote. She shared some interesting data—like the fact that AHRQ is the leading funder of patient safety research in hospital and ambulatory care, or that the U.S leads the world in rates of hysterectomy. (While our rates are comparable with other countries for hysterectomy for endometrial cancer, they are “all over the map” for hysterectomy for noncancer diagnoses.) She also spoke about the agency’s research priorities—patient safety and quality of care, comparative effectiveness research, and reducing disparities in access to care for minorities and women (she acknowledged that “lack of health insurance is the biggest barrier”).

If there was a catchphrase from this conference, it was “evidence-based practice”—how to do it, teach it, evaluate it, and use it to transform practice, education, leadership style, and workplaces.

Using technology—virtual technology, simulation, social media, and Web technology—was another major theme, and presenters focused on […]

Shawn Kennedy, MA, RN, FAAN, editor-in-chief (emerita)2016-11-21T13:16:35-05:00July 19th, 2010|Nursing, nursing perspective, nursing research|0 Comments

From the Crimea to Vietnam: Generations of Veterans Appreciate Florence Nightingale

By Sue Hassmiller, PhD, RN, FAAN, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Senior Adviser for Nursing (this is the latest in a series of posts by Hassmiller, who’s spending her summer vacation retracing crucial steps in Florence Nightingale’s innovative career)

This post is dedicated to Bob Hassmiller.

It is hard to believe that Florence Nightingale is not buried at Westminster Abbey. The offer was made, but turned down by Florence herself. For all the treasures she bestowed upon this earth while here, she was not one for a lot of pomp and circumstance. She simply wanted to do her work nonstop—to ensure that her voice was heard, and her lessons followed—but she did not want much to do with heroes’ welcomes, medals, or an honorary this or that. So in her will, and in the name of furthering medical science, she asked that her body be donated for medical research. […]