The year 2020 and the nostalgic feeling, the tail of Florence Nightingale

In the words of John Simon Bercow, the speaker of the British parliament “history is more than the path left by the past, it influences the present and shapes the future “. This statement was true yesterday and is true today. Because, in 1954, under the approval of the Secretary of War of Britain, Sidney Herbert, Florence Nightingale the leader of a team of 38 volunteer nurses were asked to care for the British soldiers fighting in the Crimean War.

This was planned to limit Russian expansion into Europe. Nightingale and her nurses arrived at the military hospital in Scutari and found soldiers wounded and dying amid horrifying sanitary conditions. She documented that, ten times more soldiers were dying of diseases such as typhoid, cholera, typhus, and dysentery than from battle wounds.

Nightingale's accomplishments during the devastating years the British army experienced in the Crimea were basically the result of her commitment to service, empathy, concern with sanitation and its relation to mortality, as well as her capacity to lead, to organize, and to get things done. She worked ceaselessly to care for the soldiers themselves, making her rounds during the night after the medical officers had retired. Given her the name of “the Lady with the Lamp,” and the London Times referred to her as a “ministering angel.” Her admiration and reputation in Britain grew immensely and even the Queen was impressed.

Today, in honor of the 200th birth anniversary of Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, the World Health Organization has declared 2020 the “Year of the Nurse and Midwife”. According to the WHO, the “Year of the Nurse and Midwife” is particularly significant given that nurses and midwives constitute over 50% of the health workforce in many countries.

The nostalgic feeling, however, is the fact that; the critical contribution both professions make to global health has got global attention unfortunately; at exactly the time the world needs the services of these nurses and midwives more than ever due to coronavirus pandemic. This paradoxical nostalgic feeling is the case of the nurse and midwife even as we commemorate the 200-birth anniversary of Florence Nightingale. And just as Nightingale and her team were called to assist in the Crimea war, in her anniversary celebration too, nurses and midwives are being called upon again as a critical staff to help contain and combat the deadly coronavirus.

May this special recognition of nurses and midwives at this defining moment of global health crisis help inspire confidence and commitment in these staff to work had like their mentor and founder of modern nursing, Florence Nightingale to help contain and eradicate the COVID-19.

May long live Nurses and Midwives.


1.GBANDE SULLEH.
ASSISTANT LECTURER, UNIVERSITY OF HEALTH AND ALLIED SCIENCE
SCHOOL OF NURSING AND MIDWIFERY, HO-GHANA

2. DR. PETER ADATARA
SENIOR LECTURER UNIVERSITY OF HEALTH AND ALLIED SCIENCES
SCHOOL OF NURSING AND MIDWIFERY, HO-GHANA

3. EMMANUEL B.A PREMPEH
ASSISTANT REGISTRAR
UNIVERSITY OF HEALTH AND ALLIED SCIENCES
HO-GHANA