Good night, Florence: with nursing in crisis, some say it's time to retire Nightingale as a symbol.

Abstract

In an unprecedented and surprising move, one of the world’s great icons has been summarily knocked from her pedestal. Florence Nightingale, long considered the founder of modern nursing, was ditched by a group of British nurses. In 1999, delegates at the annual conference of Unison, Britain’s largest trade union representing nurses and other public service workers, unanimously declared that nursing was long overdue for a more contemporary role model. The United Kingdom, like the United States, has been chafing under the strain of an acute shortage of nurses. While there are multiple reasons for the shortage, the Unison nurses believe that the legacy of Florence Nightingale is one of them. They feel that she “has held the nursing profession back too long” and represents the “negative and the backward elements of nursing.” Unison nurses even requested that International Nurses Day, celebrated on Nightingale’s birthday (May 12), be moved to a different date. A recent BBC documentary and a new biography take a fresh and more nuanced look at the life and impact of a woman who has often been treated simply, as a kind of saint or a symbol of selfless service. This year marks the 150th anniversary of the beginning of Nightingale’s nursing career, when she went to work as superintendent of the Institution for Gentlewomen in London. Given the span of time, it is undoubtedly true Good Night, Florence: With Nursing in Crisis, Some Say It’s Time to Retire Nightingale as a Symbol