The qualities Florence brought to the Scutari Barrack Hospital – courage, resilience, commitment, and innovation – are exactly what we need today as we face our own healthcare crisis. (Florence would have engaged in the Black Lives Matter protests in a way that ensured changes to last a hundred years.) Established the ethical principle that medical triage should be based on a patient’s clinical condition and not their race, religion, military rank or social status.(She was horrified when doctors refused to wash their hands, and would have been just as horrified to see people endangering their own health and that of their families and communities by not wearing face masks during this pandemic.) Made infection control a top health priority.Became history’s first, and most effective, advocate for the healthcare of soldiers and veterans.Created an administrative blueprint that has been reflected in every hospital organization chart ever since.

Established nursing as a true profession and defined what it means to be a nurse.

Florence went to work and over a two-year period she: The place was filthy and infected, medical care was abysmal, the most basic of supplies were unavailable, and the mortality rate exceeded fifty percent. No one has ever faced a crisis as catastrophic as the one Florence walked into at the Scutari Barrack Hospital in 1854 during the Crimean War. The Florence Prescription is now available as an Audible audiobook That year has turned out to be very different than we’d all anticipated, but the lessons of Florence are more relevant and more important than ever before. I created this special edition to honor the 2020 International Year of the Nurse.

The article is adapted from the afterward of the 10th anniversary edition of my book The Florence Prescription. If you’re not a Nurse Leader subscriber download this illustrated PDF You will also learn why I say Florence is healthcare’s only rockstar. Read it and you will learn about Florence’s lasting impact on healthcare beyond her role in founding the nursing profession. My article “Florence Nightingale’s Lasting Legacy for Healthcare” is the lead story in the June 2020 edition of Nurse Leader, a publication of the American Organization for Nursing Leadership. In every corner, not just in the corner office!

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