Last reviewed:
Florence Nightingale
1820–1910
English nurse, reformer and pioneering statistician.
What they got right
She turned hospital records into clear charts (her 1858 'rose' diagrams) that showed most soldiers died of preventable disease, not wounds, and used them to change policy.
Skill it shows
Numbers and chance
Practise this skillAlso: Evidence and sources
The most important practical lesson that can be given to nurses is to teach them what to observe—how to observe—what symptoms indicate improvement—what the reverse—which are of importance—which are of none…
Worth knowing
She held to the older 'miasma' (bad air) theory of disease for a long time, and historians debate how much her own hospital improved; the Sanitary Commission deserves much of the credit.
Try it yourself
Find a statistic presented as a single number. How would it look as a chart, and would that change what you think it shows?