The diagram, which the nurse created herself in 1857, revealed the remarkable impact of improving cleanliness levels: deaths from preventable infection dropped by 99 per cent.Īt the time, the medical profession were largely ignorant about the threat posed by invisible germs and so conditions in hospitals were appalling, leading to thousands of unnecessary deaths from disease and infection.īut the last episode of Extra Life: A Short History of Living Longer – which airs on BBC Four tonight – contrasts Nightingale's success with the earlier plight of Hungarian doctor Ignaz Semmelweis.
Now, a new documentary sheds light on how Nightingale's Rose Diagram – which showed how the deaths of British soldiers wounded in the Crimean War plummeted when hospital sanitary conditions were improved. Florence Nightingale is fondly remembered as the 19th Century pioneer who transformed chaotic, unclean hospitals and revolutionised nursing.īut how she did it – by harnessing data and presenting it in a beautiful, persuasive way – is less well-known.
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