Nightingale and the Crimean War through the spanish press

Abstract

The work of Nightingale and his team in the Crimean War was significant. Their interventions were recognized in England and other countries. At that time, in Spain, care was mostly in the hands of the Church. This paper aims to identify the ideological position disseminated in the Spanish press on the role of Nightingale in the Crimean War. A bibliographic review was carried out in the Digital Newspaper Library of the National Library of Spain, obtaining 27 publications in Spanish press that referred to news of Nightingale and the Crimean War. The content was analysed following Gadamer’s hermeneutics. Based on the political and religious ideology of each newspaper, the publications show discrepancies regarding the perception of Nightingale’s work. Some newspapers define her as a imitator of religious institutions; others highlight a woman with an academic background and great leadership in health management. These divergences result from Nightingale’s analysis in a cultural, political, and social context that was different from Protestant England. For future research it is proposed to analyse whether the information in the Spanish press in relation to the Nightingale nursing training initiative also generated discrepancies in this context.