An ode to florence.

Abstract

This issue of HERD has special meaning to me, because most of the articles are written by nurses, with nurses, or about nurses and their professional work in caring for patients. We are completing the seventh year of publication of HERD, and I have witnessed the journal's tremendous growth, with an increasing number of robust scientific and theory papers that have added new knowledge to the healthcare design field. More and more nurses are contributing articles to HERD, disseminating the findings from their research projects in design firms or in their roles as researchers in academic settings or inpatient and outpatient healthcare environments. I also have noticed a significant increase in the number of nurses giving podium or poster presentations at national and international design conferences and at healthcare conferences addressing design features that support specific patient care needs in clinical specialties such as NICU, oncology, intensive care, emergency departments, and other surgical and procedural areas. I am so pleased to see that nurses have found their voice in the healthcare design field and are contributing to the scientific growth of the healthcare design discipline.As one of the first nurses to have worked in the healthcare design industry, I am delighted to now have hundreds of colleagues who are contributing creative and innovative ideas to improve patient care and workplace environments and who are measuring the effect of these new changes on patient, provider, and organizational outcomes. We are also seeing an increasing number of nurses who are adding design degrees to their list of credentials and a number of design professionals who are becoming nurses or who are obtaining doctorate degrees in nursing. Clearly we are establishing a new era of cross-fertilization of ideas, theories, and experiences that will ensure that our hospitals are patient and family focused, supportive of multiple professional practices, and operationally efficient and effective. More nurses are becoming healthcare administrators as CEOs and COOs in addition to the more traditional CNO role and are not only influenc- ing facility changes and major design projects, but are also directing and coordinating the project from the initial visioning session to the public commissioning of the building. Nurse executives are now the major decision makers in selecting design firms, securing various financing methods for projects, and even cultivating philanthropic partners to support the new building and its programs and services (Stichler, 2007). We've come a long way-from hoping to be invited to discuss clinical needs with architects to directing and leading the discussions about clinical needs-and woe to the firms who don't listen well. Nurses now measure the results of the new buildings and widely disseminate the findings in podium and journal presentations for all to see. Gone are the days of only pretty pictures being used to describe projects, and here to stay are the days of data-driven evidence of the outcomes of specific design features. These new roles for nurses are actually built on a deep foundation at the core of nursing-a foundation laid by Florence Nightingale.It is general knowledge that nursing has a rich heritage in healthcare design established in the 1800s by Florence Nightingale. But there are a few facts about Miss Nightingale that are less well known, and these facts suggest her influence was not only in nursing and hospital design, but also in social policy, hospital administration, and public health. Her life and her work provide an example of strong leadership, advocacy, and change that continues to inspire us a century and a half later.A Woman of Affluence and InfluenceFlorence Nightingale was a privileged woman, the younger of two daughters born to William Nightingale, a wealthy landowner, and Frances Smith, the daughter of a member of Parliament and well-known philanthropist. Florence was raised on a beautiful estate, Lea Hurst in Derbyshire, and at Embley Park in warmer Hampshire. …