“The environment is critical to health, and the nurse's role in caring for the sick is to provide a clean, quiet, peaceful
environment to promote healing.”
(Creasia, Friberg page 100)
Nightingale uses the 4 philosophical principles of nurses, however she focuses more on patient and environment.
Patient and environment cannot be viewed as separate, one can affect the other. She believed that sanitation and
cleanliness (patient) was the basic principal to control the spread of diseases (environment). External influences
and condition can contribute, prevent or suppress diseases and death. And the role of nurse is to care for the ill,
educate the patients so they can learn how to control the environment.
Nightingale’s Environment Theory
Person
• The receiver of nursing care
• Is connected with the environment.
• With properly education the person can control the
environment.
Environment
• External and internal conditions that affect patient’s health
• Environment could be altered to improve surroundings to allow
recovery to occur. Eg. Pure water, pure air, health food, sanitation,
efficient drainage and light.
Pure water: avoid the ingestion of mycobacteria into the body
system. Help nourish the body.
Pure air: focus on the aspect of the hospital to maintain a clean air
in order to avoid the spread of disease.
Health food: focus on the aspect of good nutrients to maintain a
health life.
Sanitation and efficient drainage: dirty environment is the source
of infection. She focuses on teaching patient to frequent bathing
and hand washing.
Light: direct exposure to sunlight
• Health
State of wholeness
Supports the ideas of holistic health where the RN and the
patient encourage the responsibility for self care.
Diseases are viewed as issue that can be control by the patient
and community. So health can be achieve by properly
sanitation, nutrition, and patient’s comfort
• Nursing
Work together with...