Abstract
Objective
to reflect on Florence Nightingale's public figure, her achievements, Health Care Reform and the creation of the School for Nurses, and understand the birth of nursing as a profession.
Method
a framework of the social pressures acting on Florence Nightingale's individual behavior and the apparent dividing marks, which we understand as the density of socio-historical relations, and her social time, was drawn from the literature. This is a socio-historical analysis of Florence Nightingale's life story and Charles Dickens' social literature. The time frame spanned from the enactment of the New Poor Law (1834) to the repeal (1601).
Results
Florence Nightingale was a woman ahead of her time who, going against the theories of social Darwinism of her time, created the nurse profession, and produced a divide in the profession by defining it as science and art.
Conclusion and implications for nursing
by creating the emblematic figure of the Lady of the Lamp, Florence Nightingale engraved in nursing care, zeal, devotion, and compassion, here understood as empathy and pity for the suffering of others accompanied by the desire to alleviate it, a spiritual participation in the pain of others.
Keywords:
Nursing History; Knowledge Discovery; Social Identification; Nursing Professionals