Jane / Florence Nightingale

I flew to England to attend The International Florence Nightingale Conference. It was held at Embley, nr. Romsey, which is now the Hampshire Collegiate School but was once one of the Nightingale family homes. I had visited there two years ago and learned that the conference would be held this year which is the centenary of Florence Nightingale’s death.

The presenters were literally the people who are have written the recent books about FN and who are leading the studies that do more research about her and her contributions to nursing, statistics and evidence-based research. I had met 5 of the presenters when I went to Turkey on the In the Footsteps of Florence Nightingale Tour in 2008. It was great to see them again and to hear other speakers, including Mark Bostrich who has recently written an award-winning, comprehensive biography of FN. I was especially pleased to hear and to meet Barbara Montgomery Dossey whose FN books I think are exceptionally clear, detailed, informative and interesting. My well-used copy of Florence Nightingale, Mystic, Visionary, Healer has at least 2 dozen post-it tabs! Barbara is also the Co-Founder of 2010 The International Year of the Nurse, www.2010iynurse.net and Co-International Director of the Nightingale Initiative for Global Health.

The prospect of being at a conference with all these leaders was somewhat intimidating, but that was, of course, unfounded. They are lovely people and were easy to be with. Other participants, not presenters, included nursing faculty members, nursing organization officials, hospital nurses and historians. It was exhilarating to be a part of it!

Having checked in advance, I took my FN costume and wore it to dinner the evening there was not a program. I went from table to table greeting guests and thanking them for coming to Embley. It was fun and made it worth finding luggage space for the costume. I had a friend take my picture when I was seated on a bench beneath a huge Cedar of Lebanon tree where Miss Nightingale was once photographed.

We were there for three days and nights. Getting to sleep in the Nightingale home added to the excitement of it for each of us. The couple staying in Florence’s bedroom allowed the others of us to come see the view of the huge estate from her windows.

The school outdid itself in every way. The meals, the flower arrangements, afternoon outings to local sights, the evening entertainments, were all beautifully done. One of the little touches was a fresh stem of lavender, from the estate plantings, on our bed pillows when we arrived. Dr. Russ Foster, the school’s history professor was in charge of the conference, but the staff and other faculty members also turned themselves out in every way for us. The administrators and trustees were also actively and enthusiastically involved for in addition to operating a very fine
school, they feel honored to be entrusted with preserving the Nightingale history of the estate. That attitude resonates. As Joan Pryor McCann, one of the first speakers, put it so well, there is something special about “the magic of place.”