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Florence Nightingale

Florence Nightingale Quotes

Statistician

Florence Nightingale, a British nurse and statistician, is hailed as the founder of modern nursing. She was born on May 12, 1820, and died on August 13, 1910. Nightingale gained fame for her nursing work during the Crimean War, where she improved the conditions of military hospitals.

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Famous Florence Nightingale Quotes

“Nature alone cures. ... what nursing has to do ... is to put the patient in the best condition for nature to act upon him.”

Conditions Patient Illness Cures Nurse Nursing

Book:Suggestions for Thought by Florence Nightingale: Selections and Commentaries

Source: Suggestions for Thought by Florence Nightingale: Selections and Commentaries

“Never to allow a patient to be waked, intentionally or accidentally, is a sine qua non of all good nursing.”

Patient Nurse Nursing

Book:Notes on Nursing for the Labouring Classes

Source: Notes on Nursing for the Labouring Classes

“Apprehension, uncertainty, waiting, expectation, fear of surprise, do a patient more harm than any exertion.”

Care Waiting Expectations Surprise Patient Harm Health Care Uncertainty Nurse Nursing Apprehension Exertion Medical Care Inspirational Nurse Inspirational Nursing Inspiring Nursing

Book:Notes on Nursing: What it Is, and what it is Not

Source: Notes on Nursing: What it Is, and what it is Not

“Variety of form and brilliancy of colour in the objects presented to patients are actual means of recovery.”

Mean Form Healing Objects Color Patient Recovery Variety

Author:Florence Nightingale

“It is the unqualified result of all my experience with the sick that, second only to their need of fresh air, is their need of light; that, after a close room, what hurts them most is a dark room and that it is not only light but direct sunlight they want.”

Want Needs Light Science Hurt Dark Rooms Results Air Health Direct Sick Patient Sunlight Fresh Air Unqualified Dark Room

Book:Florence Nightingale on Public Health Care: Collected Works of Florence Nightingale

Source: Florence Nightingale on Public Health Care: Collected Works of Florence Nightingale

“People say the effect is only on the mind. It is no such thing. The effect is on the body, too. Little as we know about the way in which we are affected by form, by color, and light, we do know this, that they have an actual physical effect. Variety of form and brilliancy of color in the objects presented to patients, are actual means of recovery.”

People Knows Way Mind Mean Littles Body Light Form Science Air Effects Objects Color Health Patient Recovery Variety Affected

Book:Notes on Nursing: What it Is, and what it is Not

Source: Notes on Nursing: What it Is, and what it is Not

“The account he gives of nurses beats everything that even I know of. This young prophet says that they are all drunkards, without exception, Sisters and all, and that there are but two whom the surgeon can trust to give the patients their medicines.”

Knows Giving Two Young Science Beats Accounts Medicine Patient Prophet Exception Nurse Surgeons Drunkards

Author:Florence Nightingale

“I use the word nursing for want of a better. It has been limited to signify little more than the administration of medicines and the application of poultices. It ought to signify the proper use of fresh air, light, warmth, cleanliness, quiet, and the proper selection and administration of diet-all at the least expense of vital power to the patient.”

Source: Florence Nightingale on Public Health Care: Collected Works of Florence Nightingale

“The only English patients I have ever known refuse tea, have been typhus cases; and the first sign of their getting better was their craving again for tea.”

Firsts Has Beens Known Cases Disease Patient Refuse Tea Get Better Craving Nursing Typhus

Book:Notes on Nursing for the Labouring Classes

Source: Notes on Nursing for the Labouring Classes

“Women should have the true nurse calling, the good of the sick first the second only the consideration of what is their 'place' to do - and that women who want for a housemaid to do this or the charwomen to do that, when the patient is suffering, have not the making of a nurse in them.”

Want Should Firsts Suffering Calling Should Have Sick Patient Consideration Nurse Nursing Housemaids

Author:Florence Nightingale

“If a patient is cold, if a patient is feverish, if a patient is faint, if he is sick after taking food, if he has a bed-sore, it is generally the fault not of the disease, but of the nursing.”

Ifs Cold Bed Disease Sick Faults Patient Nursing

Book:Notes on Nursing: What it Is, and what it is Not

Source: Notes on Nursing: What it Is, and what it is Not

“We know nothing of the principle of health, the positive of which pathology is the negative, except from observation and experience. Nothing but observation and experience will teach us the ways to maintain or to bring back the state of health. It is often thought that medicine is the curative process. It is no such thing; medicine is the surgery of functions as surgery proper is that of limbs and organs.”

Knows Way States Process Principles Teach Conditions Negative Medicine Patient Cures Observation Nursing Pathology

Author:Florence Nightingale

“When you see the natural and almost universal craving in English sick for their 'tea,' you cannot but feel that nature knows what she is about. ... A little tea or coffee restores them. ... There is nothing yet discovered which is a substitute to the English patient for his cup of tea.”

Knows Feels Littles Science Natural Sick Universal Patient Coffee Cups Tea Substitutes Craving Cups Of Tea

Book:Notes on Nursing: What it Is, and what it is Not

Source: Notes on Nursing: What it Is, and what it is Not