Florence Nightingale: using graphical statistical analysis to combat the spread of disease

Abstract

Florence Nightingale (from Lea, Derbyshire) is well known in mathematical and statistical circles for her graphical representations of data. But what exactly did these diagrams show and what other diagrams and statistical methods were being used at the time to analyse data? This talk will look in detail at Nightingale's graphical representation of the causes of mortality during the Crimean War. It will demonstrate how these were used by Nightingale and others to show that preventable diseases contributed to the army's high mortality rate and how the use of this data led to dramatic changes to nursing practices in Army hospitals.

Author

Noel-Ann Bradshaw

Search Document Repository