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An Introduction to Volume 16
- Wilfrid Laurier University Press
- Chapter
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An Introduction to Volume 16 H ospital Reform completes the sixteen volumes in The Collected Works of Florence Nightingale with material that permits an overview of such a central concern of Nightingale’s working life as hospital reform. Subjects range from her early work on army hospitals and her far larger output on civil hospitals to her use of statistics and other research on the health of the population at large. The first volumes in the Collected Works introduce Nightingale’s family and background: Life and Family (vol. 1) and European Travels (vol. 7). Four volumes relate the influence of her faith: Spiritual Journey , Theology and Mysticism and Eastern Religions (vols. 2, 3 and 4) and Suggestions for Thought (vol. 11). Public Health Care (vol. 6) is the first of four that deal with hospital and nursing concerns; it includes her Notes on Nursing for the Labouring Classes and much on workhouse infirmaries ; The Nightingale School (vol. 12) reports the foundation and work of her school at St Thomas’ Hospital, and Extending Nursing (vol. 13) relates its extension throughout Britain, Europe and much of the world. Women (vol. 8) includes her work on maternal health (with Introductory Notes on Lying-in Institutions), prostitution, women in medicine and letters to many women correspondents. The present volume, Hospital Reform, completes the sub-set, with its focus on hospital design and construction. Two volumes report Nightingale’s massive work on India: Health in India (vol. 9) and Social Change in India (vol. 10). Two report her work on wars: The Crimean War (vol. 14) and Wars and the War Office (vol. 15), which takes up the implementation of War Office reforms post-Crimea and reports all her work on later wars. Hospital Reform has its roots in The Crimean War, notably in Nightingale ’s pioneering analysis of what went wrong in the war hospitals to result in such high death rates. The same year that her main reports on that war appeared—1858—she sent her first paper to the National / 1 Association for the Promotion of Social Science, ‘‘Notes on Hospitals,’’ which she then expanded for separate publication in 1859. These two papers have been published together here as a critical edition, followed by her greatly enlarged and revised 1863 Notes on Hospitals. Hospital Reform also reprints Nightingale’s 1859 short paper, A Contribution to the Sanitary History of the British Army, which permits a revisiting and rethinking of some of the Crimean War hospital material. This fine piece of analysis constitutes Nightingale’s last crack at the subject of what went wrong, and also serves, as does all of her analytical material, to introduce remedies to avoid such mistakes in the future. Two sections of correspondence and short publications follow the major published works: the first on military hospitals (including barracks and camps), the second and longer on civil hospitals (including some material on schools and towns). The links between the two sections are significant, for hospitals have common characteristics and risks, whether their patients are soldiers or civilians. Nightingale’s publications too go back and forth between the two types of patient, but it makes sense to have some demarcation, given the differences in administrative procedures and legal framework between civil and military institutions and their staffs. The military section contains much material on the building of two great military hospitals, the Royal Victoria Hospital, Netley, and the Herbert Hospital, Woolwich: the bad and good examples, respectively, of hospital construction. Some further excerpts from Nightingale’s ‘‘confidential report,’’ Notes on the Health of the British Army, are included here, as not all of this 853-page report could be included in The Crimean War volume. The material on civil hospitals ranges over subjects from general hospitals to workhouse infirmaries, convalescent and cottage hospitals, children’s hospitals and midwifery institutions. Much of it was written in answer to specific requests for help and advice. For some hospitals there is ample documentation of what Nightingale did or tried to do. For many there are only occasional references in correspondence, with any actual letters to the architect or hospital officials having gone missing. Nightingale often wrote her comments directly on hospital plans, but none of these annotated plans has survived. Nightingale, throughout her life, placed a high value on the importance of architecture. During her European travels as an adolescent and young woman, she had a privileged look at the finest European cathedrals, basilicas, hospitals, public buildings and monuments. She 2 / Florence...