Florence Nightingale quotes

1820–1910 · Florence, Italy

• 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--which are the evidence of neglect--and of what kind of neglect.

• And what nursing has to do in either case, is to put the patient in the best condition for nature to act upon him.

• Apprehension, uncertainty, waiting, expectation, fear of surprise, do a patient more harm than any exertion.

• Unnecessary noise, or noise that creates an expectation in the mind, is that which hurts a patient.

• The very first canon of nursing, the first and the last thing upon which a nurse's attention must be fixed, the first essential to the patient, without which all the rest you can do for him is as nothing, with which I had almost said you may leave all the rest alone, is this: TO KEEP THE AIR HE BREATHES AS PURE AS THE EXTERNAL AIR, WITHOUT CHILLING HIM.