Reflecting on Whether Florence Nightingale’s Work Was the Most Important Achievement in Hospital Care and Treatment in the Years 1700-1900

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I agree with this statement due to Nightingale setting up the Nightingale School for Nurses at St. Thomas Hospital in London. Nurses were trained mainly in sanitary matters (cleaning a wound). This meant that nurses throughout the United Kingdom could come to the Hospital and learn proper sanitary care, therefore resulting in better treatment in hospitals. Due to this training nursing became a recognized profession not just an unqualified job, this caused more women to sign up to be a nurse. Nightingale also promoted a pavilion style of hospital this meant patients were separate from other patients which would lower the infection rate. Nightingale also believed that dirt led to infections and disease so by focusing on this cleanliness in hospitals were improved and were kept a lot cleaner. This was a main reason for the development in the care and treatment provided in hospitals in the years 1700-1900.

On the other hand, the vaccination was also a key role in the development in the care and treatment provided in hospitals in the years 1700-1900. This is because the vaccination reduced the spread of disease this allowed hospitals to be able to treat for the patients faster and more reliably. The first vaccination was created by a man called Joseph Lister which help prevent catching smallpox. This reduced the infection rate which allowed hospitals to spend more time on other patients which improved how patients were treated and cared for. Before Lister introduced a vaccination a method called inoculation was used. However, the government recognized that the vaccination was a cheaper more reliable way to stop the spread of diseases, so they funded research for more vaccinations. This allowed hospitals to provide a safe way to treat their patients from diseases, this encouraged more people to get the vaccination as they felt well cared for.

In addition, anesthetics were a key role in the development in the care and treatment provided in hospitals in the years 1700-1900. Doctors had been experimenting with anesthetics for many centuries, to keep patients still and quiet for long enough to perform operations. However, there was little doctors could do to sooth the pain for their patients. An early development was laughing gas which was very successful for small operations but had significant side effects: patients vomiting or coughing while being unconscious. James Simpsons surgeon from Edinburg thought there had to be a better anesthetic than laughing gas to be discovered. Simpson and some of his friends decided to sniff various chemicals to see what they would do and after sniffing chloroform Simpson and his friends had passed out. This led to Simpsons discovery that chloroform was a good anesthetic. Therefore, patients felt better cared for and felt the treatment was better than before

In conclusion, I do not agree that the work of Florence Nightingale was the most important development in the care and treatment provided in hospitals in the years 1700-1900. I believe that there were many factors that caused the important development in the care and treatment provided in hospitals between 1700-1900.

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