The very first requirement in a hospital is that it should do the sick no harm.
Florence NightingaleNever to allow a patient to be waked, intentionally or accidentally, is a sine qua non of all good nursing.
Florence NightingaleNo man, not even a doctor, ever gives any other definition of what a nurse should be than this-'devoted and obedient.' This definition would do just as well for a porter. It might even do for a horse. It would not do for a policeman.
Florence NightingaleGo into a room where the shutters are always shut (in a sick-room or a bed-room there should never be shutters shut), and though the room be uninhabited-though the air has never been polluted by the breathing of human beings, you will observe a close, musty smell of corrupt air-of air unpurified by the effect of the sun's rays.
Florence Nightingale