West Sussex History of Medicine Society

The next series of lectures starts again on:

Saturday 10th October 2020

 

We would like to wish you all well at this time of crisis and also         remember the person who brought in the discipline of hand washing.   

    ‘ I was greatly heartened that a new temporary huge hospital is to be opened. It is to be called the Nightingale Hospital. I wonder if people know that 12th May every year is International Nurses Day. 12th May because that is Florence Nightingale’s birth date in 1820. 2020 is her 200th Birthday and a year to really celebrate her and the work of her unrelenting successors especially this year of all years – in fact all NHS staff along with those looking after us. During the Crimean War at a time when most people believed that infections were caused by foul odours called miasmas, Florence Nightingale implemented handwashing and other hygiene practices in the war hospital in which she worked, thus reducing cross infection significantly among the sick. Lets remember her well’.