The Florence Nightingale Foundation

About us...

The FlorenceNightingaleFoundationProviding inspiration and scholarships in healthcare for the 21st century

The Foundation

2 |The Florence Nightingale Foundation

The Florence Nightingale Foundation is governed by a Board of Trustees.

Patron: HRH Princess Alexandra, The Hon Lady Ogilvy KG GCVO

President: Baroness Emerton DBE DL

Chairman: Bryan Sanderson CBE

Chief Executive: Professor Elizabeth Robb

The Foundation promotes the special contribution of nursing to society and to the health of people. It encourages international understanding and learning between nurses.

34 Grosvenor GardensFirst Floor FrontLondon SW1W 0DH

Telephone: +44 (0)20 7730 3030Fax: +44 (0)20 7730 6262Email: [email protected]: www.florence-nightingale-foundation.org.uk

Charity Registration Number: 229229

The Florence NightingaleFoundation exists to supportnurses and midwives withscholarships and mentoring and,perhaps, most importantly, togive them some of therecognition they so richlydeserve. Times and attitudeshave changed since “the ladywith the lamp” battled withignorance and prejudice toestablish the profession; aboveall, science and technology havetransformed medicine. Throughall the changes since her life, thefundamental need for goodpatient care remains and theburden on the front line staff incontact with the patients is justas demanding and as critical asever. As we live longer and seekquality of life in old age, society’sdemand for caring and trainednurses increases.

Today’s nurses and midwives areshowing every day that a caringattitude can be coupled with theever widening set of skills andtraining needed to be effective intoday’s hospitals. Too often themedia encourages the public tobelieve that professional skillsand a commitment to patients’

welfare are incompatible. They are not, and The FlorenceNightingale Foundation sets outto equip the senior nurses andmidwives of today with theconfidence to represent theirprofession at the very top levelsof our health system. As you canread in this brochure, it works.

Please help us to give this keygroup of clinical professionalsthe support and recognition theyneed to put patient care at theheart of health provision.

Bryan K Sanderson CBEChairman

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Chairman's Foreword

Florence Nightingale, probablythe most famous nurse of alltime, died 100 years ago in1910.

At the Foundation set up in hername we celebrate her life andachievements but we also seeher as the driving force behindour passion to improvehealthcare for patients in themodern world.

So much of what she said andbelieved is very relevant in the 21st century, just as it was in the19th when she worked with herteam of nurses at ScutariHospital during the CrimeanWar.

She reinvented nursing – and notbefore time. But she worked on amuch bigger canvas,encompassing reform of thearmed forces, public health, theenvironment, housing andhealth, world poverty.

She was adamant that nursesshould be the servants of the artand science of medicine, surgeryand hygiene, not justhandmaidens to doctors. Herinfluence has, without question,given the nursing profession thecredibility it has long needed, sothat now nurses can advance intheir education to degree andhigher degree level, becomeDirectors of Trusts and ChiefExecutives and, moreimportantly, work alongsidesenior doctors as equal partnersin healthcare delivery.

Her first love was statistics andshe was a founder member of theRoyal Statistical Society. It is wellknown that she demonstrated theshocking fact that for everyBritish soldier in the Crimea whodied of his wounds, significantly


Why Florence Nightingalestill speaks to us inmodern times

more died from infection. Havewe learned the lessons from thateven now? Hopefully so, nowthe MRSA and C. Diffinfections are thankfully on thewane. Florence Nightingalesaved literally thousands of livesin the British Army both abroadand at home by her work ongood hygiene both in hospitaland the barracks.

She said: “it may seem a strangeprinciple to enunciate, as a firstrequirement in a hospital, that itshould do the sick no harm.”

Not satisfied with her work athome she was responsible forstudies in the colonies whichshowed a child mortality rate,measured in schools andhospitals, twice the Englandaverage. And she understoodthe vital importance of cleanwater and proper drainage to thethird world, even though thatterm had not even beeninvented then.

So these principles underline thework of the Foundation in its


provision of Scholarships tosenior nurses and healthcareworkers. The LeadershipScholarship particularly requiresscholars to demonstrate that theskills they developed led directlyto improvements in patient care.

We believe the work and ideasof Florence Nightingale shouldcontinue to be remembered,celebrated and implemented inour time. As a FlorenceNightingale Leadership Scholarmyself I feel proud to be playinga part in this vital work.

Professor Elizabeth RobbChief Executive


The Foundation’s scholarships are designed, along with everyother activity undertaken, to enhance the special contributionof nursing and midwifery to society. They:

● promote innovation● advance knowledge and skills, and● encourage international learning and understanding.

Travel scholarships are available to qualified nurses andmidwives. Each is funded to around £3000 - £4000 and thescholar undertakes to study an aspect of practice and/oreducation in the UK or overseas.

Research scholarships provide up to £5000 for a scholar toundertake a course in research methods, modules or dissertationas part of a degree course.

Children’s and Young People’s LeadershipScholarships provide around £10,000 per scholar. They areoffered to Children’s and Young People’s nurses who hold a FirstDegree and who show clear leadership potential.

The Burdett Partnership Leadership Scholarship is forsenior and experienced nurses, midwives, health care deans andheads of allied health professions. They will show top leadershippotential and have a personal development plan and clear goalsfor their scholarship. Up to £15,000 is available for internationalleadership study and includes mentorship. The scholar’semployer must support them with time off and a 10 per centcontribution.

The scholarships

It made me thinkoutside the box and seea world that is largerthan the NHS. Itinspired confidence, andbroadened my horizons.Katherine Fenton.

Being a FlorenceNightingaleLeadership Scholarwas a fantasticopportunity. Iwould highlyrecommend it. Ithas affected mybehaviour as a leader, especially how Ireact to others. I am more confident inmy role and in my style of leadership-Caroline Alexander.

My overall aim was toincrease patient andpublic confidence intheir local hospital. Thekey objectives were tobetter understand therelationship between

nursing leadership and reputationmanagement and secondly to provide aproactive, agile and practicalframework for executive nurses. I hadlots of ideas that I couldn’t make senseof. The award helped me to make senseof them, and to put those ideas intopractice in my organisation. I have areal sense now of what I can do.Francesca Thompson.

The FlorenceNightingaleScholarship doesopen doors for you,and gets you intoplaces where youwouldn’t think of

going. You become confident to walkthrough a door that you wouldn’t havewalked through otherwise.Jill Galvani.

The scholarship wasa brilliant enablerthat allowed me tolearn, think andreflect. There is noway that this couldhave happened in my

day-to-day work in the NHS.Peter Blythin.


The scholarship hasgiven me both time andopportunities to dothings I could not haveotherwise done. It’schanged my perspective,and filled my gaps inknowledge. I now have a very differentview of the world. These experienceshave opened my eyes to new ideas andapproaches to develop quality monitor-ing for local services. Our board hasalso approved quality and innovationframeworks and these are being rolledout across the organisation.Amanda Sullivan.

What the scholars say


A Commemoration Service to celebrate the life and work of FlorenceNightingale is held each year in Westminster Abbey.

2010 marked the centenary year of the death of Florence Nightingale. Aspart of a very special year, The Most Reverend Archbishop Desmond Tutugave the Address at the Service on May 12.

And, in a unique honour, the previously named Nurses’ Chapel wasrededicated to Florence Nightingale.

During the Service the Procession of the Lamp takes place. The Lamp iscarried by a Scholar of the Foundation and escorted by student nurses.

Students’ DayThis is an annual event – one of the most popular in our calendar – inwhich students from each University in the UK that has a School ofNursing and Midwifery is invited to spend the day with the Foundation in London.

The main venue for the day is The Governors’ Hall at St Thomas’Hospital; the events are split into three separate segments:

Morning plenary discussion session in which students are invited toraise questions or concerns to a panel of senior nurses.

The afternoon is spent at the Florence Nightingale Museum andincludes a full tour of the Museum together with a history of the lifeand times of Miss Nightingale, and her continuing influence onnursing today.

Finally, a visit to the Florence Nightingale Chapel in Westminster Abbey and attendance at the Annual Florence NightingaleCommemoration Service.

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The Commemoration Service and Students’ Day


The Centenary Our photographs show the events at the Centenary Commemoration Serviceat Westminster Abbey on 12 May 2010. They include the progress of theLamp (a replica of the original) to the altar where the Roll of Honour,showing the nurses who died in the Second World War, is displayed. Otherpictures show the Escort Party, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the main Serviceand the reception where the Foundation’s Chairman, Bryan Sanderson,

presented the first edition of theNational Mint £2 gold coincommemorating Florence Nightingaleto Archbishop Tutu (left).

Donations, legacies or sponsorships make a great difference to the achievements of the Foundation’s aims and objectives.

...find out moreIf you feel able to assist in the valuable work of the Foundation you may like to visit our website: www.florence-nightingale-foundation.org.uk

If you would like to know more about the Foundation’s work please contact Elizabeth Robb

Tel: + 44 (0)20 7730 3030Email: [email protected]

The Florence Nightingale Foundation| 11

34 Grosvenor GardensFirst Floor FrontLondon SW1W 0DH

Telephone: + 44 (0) 20-7730 3030Fax: +44 (0)20 7730 6262Email: [email protected]: www.florence-nightingale-foundation.org.uk

Charity Registration Number: 229229

The FlorenceNightingaleFoundation

The Florence Nightingale Foundation

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Transcript of The Florence Nightingale Foundation