Florence Nightingale’s legacy ‘has never been so relevant’ as world marks 200th birthday

‘She was a pioneer for sanitation, hygiene and had a monumental impact on infection control today’

On the 200th anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth – and as health workers across the globe continue to battle against the coronavirus pandemic – the legacy of the trailblazing nurse has never been so pertinent.

Tuesday marks both International Nurses’ Day and 200 years since Nightingale’s birth in Florence, Italy, on 12 May 1820.

The Independent has put together a video tribute to nurses around the world to mark Nightingale’s 200th birthday and International Nurses Day, highlighting the crucial role health workers have played throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

In the video, nurses wearing PPE around the world have each recited a line from the 1857 Henry Longfellow poem Santa Filomena – which refers to a “lady with a lamp” in reference to Florence Nightingale and her work during the Crimean War.

The importance of her key nursing values – maintaining good hygiene, regularly washing hands, and carrying out evidence-based practices – have been echoed over recent months.

Nightingale developed these crucial habits during the Crimean War (1853-56), when, along with a small troupe of nurses, she tended soldiers’ wounds and worked to improve hospital conditions.

Her data-based work helped shape modern nursing – founding the nursing school at St Thomas’ Hospital in London, developing palliative care and midwifery, and shaping the redesign of hospitals across the UK and the health system itself.

Health leaders continue to use the concept of evidence-based healthcare – a theory Nightingale pioneered and advocated for and which is currently being used by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to track and trace Covid-19 patients.

Her passion for data saw her become the first female member of the Royal Statistical Society, while her invention of the coxcombe, an early version of a pie chart, used to show Queen Victoria and her government the connection between cleanliness and the mortality rate of British soldiers, is being used today to combat the current pandemic.

Elsewhere, her compassion towards nurses has also had an impact on modern practices and historians have drawn parallels to the current PPE (personal protective equipment) crisis.

Kristin Buhnemann, assistant director at the Florence Nightingale Museum in Westminster, said that: “In terms of modern nursing, her legacy has never been so relevant, as she was a pioneer for sanitation, hygiene and had a monumental impact on infection control today.

“She focused mainly on improving hygiene for nurses, advising them to wash their hands regularly.

“Before this, nurses were not changing their uniforms or aprons, instead continuing to work with the same equipment, which she believed to be incredibly unhygienic.

“We now see this essential equipment being used properly and thrown in the bin after every use, because she was the first to identify the impact of health workers’ hygiene on patients’ mortality rates.”

Ms Buhnemann added that Nightingale was forced to pay for supplies such as aprons and water buckets out of her own pocket, showing “clear parallels with the urgent need for PPE while today’s nurses battle the pandemic”.

People are being encouraged to shine a light from their windows at 8.30pm on Tuesday in recognition of the role of nurses in the coronavirus fight.

The symbolic gesture will be a nod to the lamp Nightingale was known to carry.

The famous nurse’s image and a message of thanks were also projected from Parliament on to St Thomas’ Hospital on Monday evening, while similar projections will happen at the British Embassy in Rome and the Italian Federation of Nurses.

England’s chief nursing officer Ruth May said: “International Day of the Nurse is particularly special this year not just because we mark the 200th anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth, but because of the extraordinary work all those who have followed in her footsteps are doing in the fight against coronavirus.

“I want to thank each and every one of our incredible nurses who are on the frontline in the battle against the greatest health emergency in NHS history.”

Professor Greta Westwood, chief executive of the Florence Nightingale Foundation, added: “Florence Nightingale, herself a trailblazer during her career, would have been proud at the way nurses have followed in her footsteps as pioneers and leaders in the fight against the pandemic.

“They are truly her legacy today.”

The year 2020 has been made International Year of the Nurse to mark the bicentenary of Nightingale’s birth.

Additional reporting by PA