The Lady with the Lamp

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Caelynn Ferguson
  • 17th Training Wing Public Affairs
A light hovers throughout hospital rooms, pausing by the bedside of bloody and battered soldiers. Slowly the light comes to one soldier’s bedside and forms into a lamp illuminating the face of an angel. She whispers her concern and insists on his health as she gently inspects his wounds. As he drifts back to sleep, the glow of her compassion fills him with a feeling of warmth and safety. He would live to see another day.

Florence Nightingale, known as the ‘Angel of the Crimea’ or the ‘Lady with the Lamp’, made rounds to the bedsides of soldiers during the Crimea War. Today the Ross Clinic honors her memory by celebrating Nurse/Technician Appreciation Week.

The care and compassion of Florence Nightingale’s actions are echoed through Ross Clinic’s practice of patient care and safety.

“We all strive here to give our patients the best care possible under any circumstance,” said Clara Lange, 17th Medical Operations Squadron primary care nurse. “The patient is always first no matter what we’re doing, we’re going to take care of the patient.”

Ross Clinic’s health standards and efficiency would be very different today if it weren’t for Nightingale’s “Notes on Matters Affecting the Health, Efficiency and Hospital Administration of the British Army,” an 830-page report. According to Florence Nightingale’s biography, her book “would spark a total restructuring of the War Office’s administrative department, including the establishment of a Royal Commission for the Health of the Army in 1857.”

Ross Clinic continues this legacy through its patient safety and identification measures with a new three-part identification method. Every day they keep and maintain standards through sterilization of equipment and instrument processing, said Lt. Col. Paul Miller, 17th Medical Operations Squadron Commander and Chief Nurse.

This week Ross Clinic employees will honor Florence Nightingale with their professional performance and celebration of Nurse/Technician Appreciation Week. Ross Clinic will continue to show its appreciation this week for current nurses and medical technicians that strive to carry on Nightingale’s legacy by hosting a morale and teamwork day at the Goodfellow Recreation Camp.

“When you look at care delivery we cannot do that appropriately and adequately without the nurses and the technicians,” said Lt. Col. Miller.