major contributor<\/a>\u00a0to Cooley Dickinson\u2019s \u201cBuilding our Future\u201d campaign, which supports nurse education and cancer care programs at the hospital.<\/p>\nJennifer Margolis, a major gift officer at Cooley Dickinson, said organizers of the benefit event felt Cromwell\u2019s \u201cunique perspective on Florence Nightingale would be a very appealing subject.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cromwell\u2019s \u201cpersonal experience, both as a magna cum laude graduate of Smith College and as a 20-year veteran of corporate America, enriches the perspective she shares in her book,\u201d Margolis says.<\/p>\n
After graduating from Smith and earning a doctorate in European history from New York University, Cromwell enjoyed a successful career as vice president of Johnson & Higgins, one of the largest brokerage firms in the world. In 1973, she became one of the few women to hold an executive level position on Wall Street.<\/p>\n
Cromwell’s historical research inspired her to share the story of Florence Nightingale. While Nightingale\u2019s name often conjures up images of a selfless, nurturing woman making hospital rounds by lamplight, Cromwell\u2019s book expands upon Nightingale\u2019s pioneering life and work, revealing her deep impact on nursing, hospital management, public health, feminism and other social reform.<\/p>\n
In addition to founding the Nightingale School of Nursing in London in 1860, which established nursing as a serious profession, Nightingale was among the first to use statistics as the basis for reforms. She was also deeply committed to sanitation.<\/p>\n
It was Nightingale who led the transformation of hospitals from the poor condition in which they were often found in the late 1800s\u2014filthy, lacking in supplies, overcrowded and prone to high mortality rates\u2014into the modern institutions they are today, says Cromwell, adding, \u201cOne of the lessons we also gain from her is to be steadfast in our focus.\u201d<\/p>\n
After serving in the Crimean War in the 1850s, Nightingale was afflicted with a debilitating illness. For the next 40 years, she conducted the majority of her work from her sick bed, where she wrote books, essays and many letters.<\/p>\n
\u201cNightingale knew what her goals were, she knew what had to be done, and she was very much a person of action,\u201d says Cromwell. \u201cShe was determined to succeed, despite her illness.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Cooley Dickinson prepares for more than half of its nurses to retire by 2020, administrators say the hospital is poised to expand training to help nurses acquire high-level skills and prepare them for emerging fields, such as home health care and care management.<\/p>\n
Cromwell believes Nightingale\u2019s example continues to be useful. Nightingale not only advanced the field in terms of the basic science of medicine, but also was concerned with promoting moral and ethical practices, Cromwell says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat Florence Nightingale teaches us is how to be forward thinking and to embrace new ideas,\u201d Cromwell says. \u201cOne would think that she would have approved of the way nursing has grown. The fact that we\u2019re looking at that is a positive evolution.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tickets for Cromwell\u2019s talk at Smith are $35 and must be purchased in advance by calling 413-582-2255 or directly from\u00a0Cooper\u2019s Corner, State Street, Broadside Books or Amherst Books.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Since she published a book about Florence Nightingale in 2013, historian Judith Lissauer Cromwell \u201957 has spoken at numerous events for nursing students. Surprisingly, she has found that half of her audiences are unfamiliar with Nightingale\u2019s role as the founder of modern nursing. Yet, for aspiring nurses and veterans alike, Nightingale\u2019s ambition and meticulous attention […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-11078","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11078"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11234,"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11078\/revisions\/11234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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Since she published a book about Florence Nightingale in 2013, historian Judith Lissauer Cromwell \u201957 has spoken at numerous events for nursing students. Surprisingly, she has found that half of her audiences are unfamiliar with Nightingale\u2019s role as the founder of modern nursing.<\/p>\n