Wise and humane management of the patient is the best safeguard against infection.
Florence NightingaleRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the selflessness required in nursing, prioritizing patient care over social expectations.
Florence Nightingale stresses the importance of a true calling in nursing, suggesting that those who genuinely wish to care for the sick must put the needs of the patients above societal roles and expectations. She asserts that a true nurse must prioritize the well-being of patients over the distractions of domestic duties, indicating that a true commitment to nursing requires deep compassion and selflessness, rather than simply fulfilling a societal role.
Themes
NursingCompassionSelflessnessCareServiceCalling
In practice
Example use cases
During a nursing conference to inspire new nurses.
More from Florence Nightingale
All quotes →For us who Nurse, our Nursing is a thing, which, unless in it we are making progress every year, every month, every week, take my word for it we are going back. The more experience we gain, the more progress we can make.
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Everything you do in a patient's room, after he is 'put up' for the night, increases tenfold the risk of his having a bad night. But, if you rouse him up after he has fallen asleep, you do not risk - you secure him a bad night.
Florence NightingaleRead
If I could give you information of my life it would be to show how a woman of very ordinary ability has been led by God in strange and unaccustomed paths to do in His service what He has done in her. And if I could tell you all, you would see how God has done all, and I nothing. I have worked hard, very hard, that is all; and I have never refused God anything.
Florence NightingaleRead
The true foundation of theology is to ascertain the character of God. It is by the aid of Statistics that law in the social sphere can be ascertained and codified, and certain aspects of the character of God thereby revealed. The study of statistics is thus a religious service.
Florence NightingaleRead
I am of certain convinced that the greatest heroes are those who do their duty in the daily grind of domestic affairs whilst the world whirls as a maddening dreidel.
Florence NightingaleRead
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