Florence Nightingale and evidence-based nursing

The lady and lamp is known for her deep compassion for the sick, and her revolutionary approach to hygiene. What is not so well known is that she was also a passionate statistician. Her work was informed by research, government statistics and the clear presentation of data. She worked with experts to ensure her own research was appropriate.

When it came to presenting the results of her work she was ahead of her time in the use of tables, pie charts and bar charts. She used colour to make her points clearly. She wanted to be sure that it was clear and understandable to those who had the power to change and administer the law. In our PowerPoint computerised world this doesn’t seem unusual, but in the days when cleanliness in hospitals was viewed as an unnecessary luxury, it was remarkable.

As much as Nightingale was a nurse, she went far beyond her work in caring for the sick. She was a champion of the importance of having a statistical department to track mortality and disease. During the Crimean war 7 times as many soldiers died from disease as died from their wounds on the battlefield. Nightingale understood the importance of understanding such statistics, so the necessary changes could be made.

She was vocal on the questions asked in the 1861 census, as she understood that health was influenced by the type of housing people lived in. She was also a key influencer in changing nursing into a well-trained profession, again using data.

Despite our romantic view of a full-skirted lady caring for the sick, she was a level-headed, evidence-based thinker who fully understood the power of statistics to save not just one life, but very, very many.

The Collected Works of Florence Nightingale by Wilfred Laurier University Press describes her enormous contribution to nursing as a profession and the establishment of a public healthcare system.

The future of UK coal

This year is the 25th Anniversary of the miners’ strike. Coal is a dirty business – prized for its high energy content but expensive and dangerous to extract. The 1984 strike was not the first industrial unrest; the country was also brought to a standstill by the General Strike in 1926.

Coal mining is an ancient and troubled industry. Coal has been mined since Roman times, even though most of us associate coal with the industrial revolution. Today it is carbon emissions that cause the most concern. Worries over CO2 emissions and the link with climate change has spearheaded a drive towards cleaner fuels.

Although the UK coal industry has dwindled, coal still provides about 40% of our electricity. We burn about 50m tonnes of coal every year, but only about 17m tonnes from UK coal mines. The future of the UK coal industry hangs in the balance – skills and expertise are being lost as we import the majority of our coal. Whilst better solutions are being sought to the CO2 emissions problem – such as carbon capture and storage – coal remains a cornerstone of UK energy policy. There are still plenty who remember when the lights actually did go out.

The miners’ strike is a distant memory, and today’s efficient society has raised awareness to environmental issues rather than continuity of supply. Whilst I am as keen as anyone on the pressing need to find alternative energy sources, it is worth sparing a thought for those who have the dirty and dangerous job of extracting coal.

As work continues to find sustainable energy sources it is easy to forget the contribution this ancient industry makes to our economy.