National Nurses Week – Florence Nightingale: the data-driven nurse
Jackie Larson
As we all know, Florence Nightingale, “the Lady with the Lamp,” is the founder of modern day nursing. But something many do not know is that she was also a pioneer in the visual representation of data, i.e., graphs.
During the Crimean War, Florence Nightingale developed graphs to convey complex data about mortality rates to Members of Parliament. Her intent was to help them understand, without having to look at volumes of statistics, the effect of the horrid sanitary conditions at a British army hospital near Constantinople. At this hospital, more deaths were occurring from preventable illness and infections than from injuries sustained in battle.
Her ability to process data, and use that information to make changes to improve outcomes helped reduce the hospital’s mortality rate by two-thirds. That’s what “actionable data” is all about!
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