Visakhapatnam: GITAM pays tribute to Florence Nightingale

Visakhapatnam: The World Health Organisation (WHO) has designated 2020 as the "Year of the Nurse and Midwife", in honour of the 200th birth anniversary of Florence Nightingale. The year 2020 is significant for WHO in the context of nursing and midwifery strengthening for universal health coverage.

In view of this GITAM (Deemed to be University) Institute of Nursing organised a rally on GITAM campus here on Tuesday. While addressing the gathering GITAM Vice-Chancellor Prof K Sivaramakrishna said that Florence Nightingale paved the way for modern nursing and inspired the hospitals all over the world to take a closer look at their procedures and prioritize sanitary conditions and better nursing practices for healthier patient outcomes.

GITAM Institute of Nursing Principal Prof Kanakalakshmi said that nurses and midwives play a vital role in providing health services. The world needs 9 million more nurses and midwives if it is to achieve universal health coverage by 2030. These are the people who devote their lives to caring for mothers and children; giving lifesaving immunizations and health advice, she added.

GITAM Registrar Prof KVGD Balaji said that nursing literally did not exist except in a few religious orders until Nightingale showed what it could do, and more important, established a school to produce people who could do it. Further he added that Florence Nightingale gave attention to the ways a patient's illness is affected by his state of mind, his worries and fears, the attractiveness or drabness of his surroundings, and the noise around him.