Florence Nightingale Today: Healing, Leadership, Global Action, by B. M. Dossey, L. Selander, D.-M. Beck, and A. Attewell. Silver Spring, MD, http://Nursesbooks.org (American Nurses Association), 2005. 367 pages, ISBN 1-55810-220-5.
This unprecedented book brings the life and work of Florence Nightingale into this day. The authors' comprehensive attention to her ideals and ideas offers nursing and society alike a blueprint for global action-global action, informed by Nightingale's leadership, vision, and prescience for the future of humankind and health.
Dossey, Selander, Beck, and Attewell have established themselves as scholars and translators of Nightingale and her message and model for today. They have done this through close study, scholarly interpretation, and translation of timeless messages embedded within Nightingale's formal letters, books, notes, and conversations, paying (?) detailed attention to the historical context and critique of other authors' work. As a result, this book stands alone as a work of scholarship for biographers, students of historical figures, and certainly nursing historians. However, this work is not for historical folks alone; it stands as a foundation text any student in nursing, any faculty member, or any practicing nurse. Moreover, this work could be instructive for those involved in leadership and system or social changes in any field, as well as medical and health science students. This one-of-a-kind work on Nightingale's vision and how it serves as a model for healing, leadership, and global action transcends any and all disciplines.
Not only that, one is quickly overtaken by the depth and breadth of the ideas and how the authors translate Nightingale's life and work into models for today-models that guide healing processes and systems; models that stand as exemplars for transformative leadership; models that evoke, invite, if not incite global action in the here and now, lest we forget and end up "planting cut flowers and expecting them to grow and bloom"-one of her warnings to us then and now.
The acknowledgments alone inform the reader of the authors' dedication and devotion to scholarship and sources from which this work evolved over many years. It stands as a labor of love on behalf of these authors (which include not only Nursing Nightingale scholars but also the director of the Florence Nightingale Museum, London) and their continuous study of Nightingale from their diverse approaches, including collaborating with other Nursing Nightingale scholars as well as World Health Organization officers, using Episcopal Church Liturgical calendars and attending conventions of the Episcopal Church, visiting the Washington National Cathedral, Washington, DC, hosting the Inaugural Florence Nightingale Service, accessing the original sources of copies of Nightingale's books, publications, and letters located in archival museum and in pubic and private collections, which were used in the preparation of the books (many of these original sources are given at the end of each book's chapters).
The strength of this work is its simple, succinct organization, its layout and its message. It is organized into 3 straightforward parts, reflected in the title: Healing, Leadership, Global Action. Each major part is presented by one of the authors. In addition, the back section of the work includes source material and original letters from the collection of the Florence Nightingale Museum in London, England, reproduced courtesy of the museum. The fourth author, Alex Attewell, director of this museum, provided critical support to this stunning accumulation of source materials, contributing to this book's outstanding scholarly, comprehensive achievements.
Each section concludes with a series of study questions, guiding the student and scholar alike to reflect upon, if not personally internalize, his or her individual response/responsibility to the different models of healing, leadership, and global action. Each part stands alone as a studied text for the specific topic, integrating extant nursing theories and practice models into the historical messages and evolved models. These models are transdisciplinary and affect individuals, system, and society alike. Such approaches bring Nightingale to life in our current world of work and living, inspired by her devotion and mystical and scientific accomplishments and guides: the "call" to nursing; doing "my musts," listening to God's instructions, commitment to humanity, honoring the cosmic-universal laws of nature, but taking action-action motivated by passion, moral ideals, intellect, and a vision of "making it better." Such a leader as Nightingale can inform us today, especially in this ego-oriented time wherein systems and society alike are governed by chaos and complexity, where no one listens to anyone's voice, let alone to a higher source for healing, global awareness and action.
Finally, this work is not only a tribute to Nightingale and her legacy but also a legacy of its own, in bringing forth contemporary and futuristic models of healing, leadership, and global action. This work and the authors' undying devotion to humanity and human health, inspired by their studies of Nightingale's life and works, has now led them to initiate global action in the form of The Nightingale Initiative for Global Health (NIGH), thus inviting and enabling "peoples of the United Nations as citizens of its Member States, to work together in a worldwide campaign for health as the top global priority; enlisting nurses and other healthcare workers and educators to work together effectively in mobilizing public opinion to this purpose; and encouraging individual initiative and cooperative action toward these ends by highlighting the life of Florence Nightingale and the lives of other nurses and healthcare workers-past and present-who have devoted themselves to building a healthy world" (p. 356). See http://www.NIGHcommunities.org for more information. Or you may phone: (703)-892-6665, US; (613)-990-1114, Canada.
In addition, this book not only offers the most comprehensive original translation of Nightingale's work toward extant models and visions for today's agendas for health, leadership, healing, and global action but also brings together a timeless collection of Nightingale's original letters and writings, not commonly available. Moreover, Dossey's chapter on Interpretive Biography (given in the appendices) directed at scholars in bibliographic and historical research methodology, can prove a valuable resource for both doctoral students and faculty. Thus, the appendices alone, make this book a must in its own right. Anyone's library can benefit from this work as resource and primary text on the life and healing/health visions of Nightingale. It is unique as a text for understanding her life and work for today's "musts" for students and scholars across all health, education, and human service disciplines.
These authors have answered their own "calling" and in the words of Nightingale are responding to the global action she called for in 1893:
May we hope that, when we are all dead and gone, leaders will arise who have been personally experienced in the hard, practical work, the difficulties and joys of organizing nursing reforms, and who will lead far beyond anything we have done. (p. 193)
This book offers models for leadership, healing, and global action, far beyond anything we have considered to date. We all are now challenged by historical Nightingale and timeless contemporary Nightingales to heed the call for informed moral action at practical and global levels.
Jean Watson, PhD, RN, AHN-BC, FAAN
Guest Reviewer, University of Colorado at Denver and Health Services, Colorado.