Perspective

Florence Nightingale's perspective was greatly influenced by her unusually-extensive experience as a nurse. Miss Nightingale was thirty-nine years old when she wrote this book. She had been a nurse for fourteen years. She had been the Lady Superintendent in Charge of female nursing in the English General Military Hospital for two years during the Crimean War and had studied for many years at practically every medically-related institution in England in an effort to improve the entire system of nursing. It was from this "seen-it-all" perspective that Florence Nightingale formulated this book. This experience gave her the confidence and authority to speak her mind about what she saw wrong with nursing at that time. She carefully presents her case for the reforms she thinks should be made, then artfully writes about the stark reality of how she has seen things done. She presents her case almost like a lawyer...