Nightingale Tour, July 15

As I sit here at Embley Park on the fifth day of my amazing journey in the Footsteps of Florence Nightingale, I've taken a moment to reflect on how I arrived at this remarkable place. It all started with a conversation with a colleague in Michigan at the Michigan Center for Nursing, Carol Stacy, RN, MS, who was coordinating a trip to England to commemorate the centenary of Florence Nightingale's passing. She had been in discussions with Dr. Louise Selanders, professor at Michigan State University and a Nightingale scholar, about a visit to England which would celebrate Miss Nightingale's life and her contributions to nursing during her lifetime and through the ensuing decades. As a Nightingale "groupie," I was immediately in, and now I find myself in this amazing place - Embley Park - where Miss Nightingale grew up.
And, while visiting many historic sites in London associated with Florence Nightingale and her work such as Harley Street for Gentlewomen, St. Thomas Hospital and the Nightingale Museum, I¹ve found the conference on "Florence
Nightingale: Her Influence and Inspiration," held at Embley Park the most inspiring. There are a group of about 70 of us here, and we have been privileged to hear 12 original papers relating to Miss Nightingale and her work - papers that have been presented by experts from England, South Africa and the United States. In all, we have five of the Nightingale scholars presenting their research, along with other incredibly knowledgeable people about her influence on not only nursing, but also broader health care and social issues of the day. She was truly an amazing person!

Miss Nightingale demonstrated many roles in her life, and I have touched on a few such as space planner and designer of hospitals. She was also a researcher and her use of the coxcomb diagram for displaying data related to patient outcomes in Skutari changed the face of patient care for hospitalized individuals. She was an administrator par excellence, and her work as a reformer/change agent is unparalleled. What isn't particularly well known, or frequently discussed, is how Miss Nightingale's birth as a gentlewoman played into her effectiveness during the Victorian times in which she lived - it was both a help and a hindrance, but I'll save that discussion for another day.

Judee
Judith. G. Berg, RN, MS, FACHE
Vice President, Professional Services
Gannett Healthcare Group