Essay Sample on The Environmental Theory of Florence Nightingale

Florence Nightingale is among the first nursing theorists. She was born on 12th May 1820 and died on 13th August 1910 at an age of 90 years old. She was widely known as the lady of with the lamp. As a theorist, she became the first to propose education and training to nursing practice. The theorist contribution towards the war of crime is widely known. Florence Nightingale was a statistician who used bars and pie charts while highlighting her key points in arguments. Her contribution towards the nursing practice field is observed on every 12th May of every year commonly known as an international nursing day (Nightingale, 2013). She is widely celebrated and respected on this day for her innovative efforts towards the treatment of patients.

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The environmental theory of Florence Nightingale originated from the concept of environmental focus which simply means external nature affecting the life and development of a living organism and stands a possibility of contributing towards preventing, suppressing and initiating disease or death to the organism.

Theory Description

The theory considers disease as a process of restoring the process of health and it is the duty of a nurse to initiate environmental balance with an aim of saving the energy of the patient to recover from the disease. A nurse is required to focus on making a stimulating environment for the patient's health development the main priority. Therefore, the theory revolves around the concept of human beings being members of nature and his or her responses are highly affected by either healthy or unhealthy environments. Additionally, Florence through the theory shares the idea that attainment of the suitable environmental conditions plays an important role in a patient's recovery hence forming the main idea behind the environment theory.

Evaluation of the Theory

Through the theory, Florence outlines significant factors relating to the environment that needs to be maintained in order to realize healing and a healthy life process. They include proper ventilation, cleaning, heat, noise, lighting, feeding, and odors (Selanders, 2010). The above factors when maintained appropriately discourage the prevention of the nature of established processes of recovery. Nevertheless, the theory is associated with a good number of assumptions such as the natural laws, nursing being a calling, achievement of nursing goals through alteration of the environment, nursing being separate and different from medicine, specific educational base requirements for nursing and eventually nursing is an art and science.

Application of the Theory

The theory can be applied in redefining the goals of the nursing field to assistance provided to the patients towards the maintenance of their essential capacity while satisfying their desired needs. This eventually helps in deriving a general conclusion that nursing openly revolves around a process of non-healing. Nursing, therefore, aims at placing the patient in the most suitable environmental condition for nature actions. Additionally, the theory stands a possibility of being applied in describing the focus of nursing care to be based on environmental hygiene. The theory can also be used in the modern nursing professional practice basically during professional acts adjustments which specifically relate to ecological issues which affect the health of people and the environment in general.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the theory brings about a lot of significance relating to nursing practice toward the health and healing process of a patient in consideration to environmental conditions. Additionally, the theory puts emphasis on the need of maintaining reliable environmental conditions as a key factor in maintaining good health.

References

Nightingale, F. (2013). Notes on Nursing: what is and what is not. Notes on Nursing, 223-223. doi:10.1017/cbo9780511751349.018

Selanders, L. C. (2010). The Power of Environmental Adaptation. Journal of Holistic Nursing, 28(1), 81-88. doi:10.1177/0898010109360257