The Self-Efficacy of Florence Nightingale

Famously known as “the Lady with the Lamp,” Florence Nightingale was an English social reformer and statistician, and was the founder of modern nursing. She was born in Florence, Italy in 1820 and learned mathematics, language, and philosophy from her father. She loved God and the Bible, and she recorded how she heard the voice of God while walking in a garden in February 1837, calling her to “go forward,” which gave her clarity and purpose to work in healthcare. 

Nightingale’s parents were strongly opposed to the idea of her working in a hospital. In England at this time, nursing was not considered to be a successful job or fit for a woman of her social standing. However, she pursued a job as a nurse because this divine “call” acted as a primary driving force.

During the Crimean War in 1852, Nightingale played an essential role in revolutionizing the nursing system. Nightingale and her team implemented rigorous sanitary practices, like scrubbing wards, improving ventilation, and ensuring that the soldiers had clean drinking water. The changes she and her team made famously reduced the hospital’s death rate, incredibly, from 42% to 2%. 

In addition, Nightingale earned the nickname “Lady with the Lamp” because she always carried a lamp while making the rounds late at night, comforting and checking in on the wounded soldiers. In 1860, Nightingale used public donations to establish the Nightingale Training School for Nurses at St. Thomas’ Hospital, which is now part of King’s College London. She also used statistical data to map out death rates. She developed the use of polar-area diagrams to visually demonstrate that the vast majority of soldiers from the Crimean War died from preventable diseases rather than battlefield wounds. Finally, Nightingale produced influential writings, like Notes on Nursing in 1859, which outlined the key important elements of nursing patients back to recovery. 

Nightingale most strongly shows moral courage in her journey. She believed that nursing was her path even when it brought criticism and social risk. She also shows spiritual courage, because her faith and being called by God gave her the motivation to continue in this career. 

The psychological concept of self-efficacy depicts a person’s belief they are capable of taking action and making a difference in the world. Nightingale had strong and compelling self-efficacy because she believed she could improve hospitals and acted according to moral principles rather than just simply obeying her family’s expectations.