From Lynn McDonald, project director | April 21, 2021

Letter to the Florence Nightingale Foundation

The letter went with 31 signatures on it. No response has come back as of yet. Five more people have since asked to co-sign the letter, so a second letter will duly go with more signatures. Anyone who did not sign and now wants to, please reply with Yes or Co-sign (if in doubt as to having signed before; no worries, I will add your name only if you did not!)

Of course, the NHS, notably NHS Employers and Public Health England are promoters of the Seacole award. The Nightingale Society has contacted them a number of times in the past, to get either no response or a feeble excuse. A telling example from NHS Employers to co-founder Wendy Mathews offered that: “the resumes of many historical figures may not stand up to the rigours of 21st century thinking or practice; however, that does not prevent these stories from being an inspiration to others.” And these people themselves add to false facts!

A letter to NHS groups will be the next step. Does anyone have contacts with sympathetic MPs or, better still, the Rt Hon Matt Hancock, Secretary of State for Health?

Other letters/emails to the Florence Nightingale Foundation

A number of people said they had some contact with members of the board and will contact them individually to seek some resolution. We want a resolution, to move forward, so anyone with ideas on how to do this, please try and let us know.

Herewith the letter (with 31 signatures):

Where to send your own emails:

Professor Greta Westwood, CBE, CEO greta@florence-nightingale-foundation.org.uk or info@florence-nightingale-foundation.org.uk
Baroness Watkins, president
Lord Remnant, vice-president
Avery Bhatia, chief nurse, St Thomas’ and Guy’s NHS Foundation Trust
Andrew Andrews, legal director
David Half, treasurer
Royal patron, Princess Alexandra
Sir Robert Francis, patron
Trustees: Joan Myers, Jill McLeod Park, Colonel Sharon Findlay, Aisha Holoway, Peter Kay, Rhiannon Beaumont-Wood, Simon Reiter, Ben Edwards, Judy O’Sullivan.

Link to superb Pushkin Industries podcast by Tim Harford, “Florence Nightingale and her Geeks Wage War on Death”

https://timharford.com/2021/03/cautionary-tales-florence-nightingale-and-her-geeks-declare-war-on-death/

Available also at NPR: https://one.npr.org/?sharedMediaId=973914176:973914178

Notice of 2021 (Delayed) Bicentenary conference on Nightingale

The International & IV National Nursing History Conference will take place in İzmir from November 18th to 20th, 2021. The Conference will be held in memory of the 200th birthday of Florence Nightingale, who laid the foundations of modern nursing as the World Health Organization declared 2020 as the ‘Year of Nursing and Midwifery’ .We want to hold our congress this year with the same theme, which we could not hold due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The main theme of our conference was determined as ‘Technology Keeps Live, Care Improves’. In line with this main theme, we invite all academicians, nurses and students to share the life and personal characteristics of Florence Nightingale, its contributions to the nursing profession, its philosophy, and the history of nursing care in our conference.

From Lynn McDonald, project director · April 8, 2021

Please say if you wish to co-sign this letter, to go to the CEO of the Florence Nightingale Foundation. For background, see the Nursing Times article noted. Simply reply Yes, or Co-sign.

This is a very troubling step taken by the Florence Nightingale Foundation, which was established for “the living memory” of Nightingale, now to accept and promote Mary Seacole with her, because both contributed to “modern nursing.” The statement even has a “partnership” between the two, from back in the Crimean War, or more “false news.” The Nightingale Society has long recognized the many favourable qualities and work by Seacole, but as a businesswoman and volunteer, but not as a co-founder of nursing.

– – – – – – – – – – – – –

To: Greta Westwood, CBE, Florence Nightingale Foundation

Dear Dr Westwood

Re: Florence Nightingale Foundation announcement on promoting Mary Seacole awards (Mary Seacole Awards to be taken over by new partnership to ‘broaden impact’ | Nursing Times)

Nightingale Society members and supporters were, at the least, puzzled to see your promotion of Mary Seacole as an apparently equal contributor to “modern nursing.” Would you please tell us what contributions to modern nursing Mrs Seacole made? We are well aware of her fine personal qualities, as a businesswoman, volunteer and generous person. She kindly distributed donated magazines to the men at the Land Transport Corps Hospital near her business, and brought them mince tarts on New Year’s Day, 1856. She gave out hot tea for several weeks (while waiting for her huts to be erected) to sick and wounded soldiers waiting on the pier at Balaclava to go to Nightingale’s hospital at Scutari.

• However, can you tell us of any hospital(s) where she nursed? in any country?
• Which nurses did she train or mentor?
• What articles or books did she ever publish on nursing?

In her very readable memoir, Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands, 1857, she mentioned nothing of the sort; that is, of actual nursing. She described attending to men on the battlefield post-battle, after selling wine and sandwiches to spectators, on three occasions. She also made it clear in her memoir that she missed the first battles, as she was in London attending to her failing gold investments (Chapter VIII, p 74).

Please state, further, what contribution to “modern nursing” Mrs Seacole made by her treatment of bowel patients: de-hydration (vomiting, purging through the bowels and sweating) to become NHS “modern nursing” practice?

How did her “lamentable blunders” (Chapter V, 31 of her memoir) contribute to “modern nursing”?

You stated in the Nursing Times article that the “partnership” with the Seacole Trust would unite Nightingale and Seacole again, after their encounter 166 years ago. Please say how, given that the encounter consisted of Seacole asking Nightingale for a bed for the night as she was en route to the Crimea to start her business. Perhaps five minutes? with nothing on nursing (see her memoir Chapter IX, p 91).

We appreciate the concern to bring due recognition to BAME persons in nursing, a valid goal, but should you not choose persons who made important contributions? We wonder why Kofoworola Abeni Pratt is not recognized; a Nightingale nurse, the first black nurse in the NHS, and an outstanding nursing leader. No doubt there are other good BAME models as well, so why feature someone who was not?

We will be happy to post your statement on Mrs Seacole’s contributions to modern nursing.

Yours sincerely

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

See a website on Seacole: www.maryseacole.info

From Lynn McDonald, project director | April 3, 2021

Welcome

For many years two separate newsletters went out (both occasionally): one strictly academic, to the Collected Works of Florence Nightingale list; the other the Nightingale Society list, with polemical notes, such as responses to attacks on Nightingale. For simplicity, the two have now been combined, so that there is both academic material (new publications), Nightingale relevant events, etc., as well as responses to attacks. Thanks to people who send me new items and suggestions.

Congratulations to Tim Harford on the radio broadcast version of his chapter on Nightingale and data visualization—he plays himself on it, with Helena Bonham Carter (a Nightingale relevant) as Nightingale herself.

Congratulations to Dr Steven Lockley, Harvard Medical School, on his article in Scientific American (18 March 2021) “What Florence Nightingale Can Teach Us about Architecture and Health.” The article points out such things as “sunlight is a critical determinant of health and wellness,” and that “natural light has been shown to decrease heart rate, lower blood pressure and even treat depression faster than antidepressants,” and it can “also decrease harmful bacteria and viruses,” hand with the pandemic.

More Publications on Nightingale and Statistics

The paper/PowerPoint I gave to the Radical Statistics Group in London February 2020, BEFORE the lockdown, has now come out in the Radical Statistics Group journal, Issue No. 128 (pp 28-48): https://www.radstats.org.uk/no128/Entire128.pdf

But why did they change my title? It was “Florence Nightingale and Statistics: What She Did and What She Did Not,” an obvious (obviously not obvious) play on the title of her most famous (but not famous enough) publication, Notes on Nursing: What It Is and What It Is Not.

New Article on Nightingale, Nursing and Health Care

Please advise if you have anything to announce. The following article is by me (Lynn McDonald).

• Florence Nightingale’s Nursing and Health Care: The Worldwide Legacy, As Seen on the Bicentenary of Her Birth https://scimedjournal.org/index.php/SMJ/article/download/223/pdf

A reply (finally) to the recent (preposterous) accusations against Nightingale

A number of people brought the ludicrous accusations against Nightingale published in nursing journals and a nursing blog. Herewith a reply, citing primary evidence for the refutations (the accusations were without any real evidence, but they convinced too many people).

• Florence Nightingale: Reflections on Diversity, the National Health Service, and the Coronavirus Pandemic https://www.ecronicon.com/ecnh/pdf/ECNH-03-00220.pdf