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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.
Florence Nightingale
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Nursing is more than just administering medicine; it's about holistic care for the patient.

In this quote, Florence Nightingale explains that the concept of nursing should encompass more than just the physical administration of treatments. She advocates for a comprehensive approach to healthcare that includes environmental factors like fresh air, light, and cleanliness, emphasizing the importance of caring for the whole person to enhance their recovery and wellbeing.

Themes

NursingHealthcareHolistic CareWellbeingPatient Care

In practice

Example use cases

During a health seminar, you might quote Nightingale to highlight the importance of holistic nursing practices.

More from Florence Nightingale

Wise and humane management of the patient is the best safeguard against infection.
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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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