Medicine Through Time - Nightingale and the Development of British Nursing, 1820-1910

About this Course

About the Course

In this course, Dr Richard Bates (University of Nottingham) explores the impact of Florence Nightingale in reforming nineteenth century British nursing. In the first module, we consider Nightingale as a nursing celebrity, looking at her legacy and the origin of her popular identity; the lady with the lamp. In the second module, we look more broadly at healthcare in early 19th century Britain, before in the third module looking at the state of nursing in Britain before Nightingale. In the fourth module, we think about Nightingale’s background and how her ideas about nursing developed, focusing in particular upon the impact of the early women’s movement and her time on the Continent. In the fifth and final module, we then turn to look at Nightingale’s legacy, in the form of the Nightingale School and the development of nurse training after 1860.

About the Lecturer

Dr Richard Bates is a Teaching Associate in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Nottingham. His research interests lie in nineteenth-century British history, in particular the history of nursing and the history of medicine. From 2018-21 he worked as a postdoctoral research fellow on the AHRC project on Florence Nightingale, which resulted in the co-authored book Florence Nightingale at Home (2020). His other recent publications include ‘Florence Nightingale and Responsibility for Healthcare in the Home’, European Journal for the History of Medicine and Health ( 2021), and ‘Florence on Film: Representations of Nightingale in Cinema and on Television’ in The Nurse in Popular Media: Critical Essays (2021) pp. 8-24.