In this “International Year of the Nurse,” celebrated on the 100th anniversary of Ms. Nightingale’s death, have you considered what you will do to change the face of health care—and who in your network will be most important as you strive to make those changes?
By Sue Hassmiller, PhD, RN, FAAN (5th in a series of posts by Hassmiller, who’s spending her summer vacation retracing crucial steps in Florence Nightingale’s innovative career)
Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would ever be at the home of Florence Nightingale. But here I am, not only visiting her family’s estate, Embley Park, but sleeping here for the next four days. […]
By Sylvia Foley, AJN senior editor
It sounds like a no-brainer: physical activity can have great health benefits for people who are chronically ill. But which interventions promote physical activity in this population most effectively? Many studies evaluating such interventions have been conducted; but “without the benefit of a statistical analysis across studies it can be difficult to detect patterns and interpret results,” say the authors of this month’s CE feature, Todd M. Rupper and Vicki S. Conn.
In 2008 Conn and colleagues did just that, performing a meta-analysis that summarized the findings of 163 reports on 213 independent tests of interventions used to promote physical activity among more than 22,000 adults with various chronic illnesses. Now, in this article, Rupper and Conn discuss the implications of the findings from that meta-analysis, describe the strategies and practices most commonly used, and identify which ones have proven most effective. Among the take-aways: […]
By Sue Hassmiller, PhD, RN, FAAN (this is the 4th in a series of posts by Hassmiller retracing Florence Nightingale’s influential and innovative career)
Seeing the famous St. Thomas’ Hospital today, I thought Florence Nightingale would roll over in her grave with disgust! What were they thinking, I asked the tour guide? Well, she said, it was the ‘60s. No excuse, I barked back! Prince Charles doesn’t like it either, if that makes you feel any better, she responded.
Applying best practices. The most visually prominent buildings in the hospital now consist of a couple of plain, brown, nondescript, blocklike structures—not anything like Nightingale, once the most famous hospital designer in the world, would have had it. Or, rather, did have it. Her friend, Queen Victoria, laid the first stone and Florence Nightingale contributed to the design and relocation of the St. Thomas’ Hospital of the mid-1800s, with the intention of applying best practices she had brought back from the Crimean War as well as her own research and statistics.
Nightingale was much sought after as a master designer of hospitals; architects, physicians, and royalty from around the world asked her advice. And here was supposed to be her masterpiece . . . but her version of St. Thomas’ is just about gone.
Physical, spiritual, mental health needs. Nightingale envisioned the relocated and rebuilt St. Thomas’ as […]
Editor’s note: The two entries below, written on Saturday and Sunday in London, are the latest in a series of posts by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Senior Adviser for Nursing, Susan Hassmiller, who’s spending her summer vacation retracing the footsteps of Florence Nightingale and reflecting on the implications of Nightingale’s work for nurses today.
Saturday: Westminster Abbey (London)
I arrived in London for my vacation today. They tell me it is uncharacteristically hot (nearly 90 degrees), so that gave me full license to have ice cream . . . not once, but twice! And although the “official” Florence Nightingale tour hasn’t started, I didn’t waste time getting a head start on my quest to better understand the contributions of Ms. Nightingale. […]