
English Wordplay ~ Listen and Enjoy
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE 1820-1910
It is no small thing that a Western medical office is called a 'practice'. Practitioners are constantly practising their thoughts and ideas upon a needy, bleeding human being.

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PLEASE LISTEN to CLAIRE MARCHIONNE as FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE |
She was born in Italy and named after the city of her birth. Her father believed in giving her a sound classical education at home. At seventeen she felt called to serve the medical needs of the poor. Nursing at the time was left largely to working women and prostitutes; and was almost wholly unorganised.
Herbert Spencer, a friend and Secretary for War, recruited her as the Lady-in-Chief of 38 nurses to serve the army in its field army at Scutari, Turkey, during the Crimea war.
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She began by thoroughly cleaning the hospital and equipment. She became famous as "The Lady with the Lamp".
Her Notes on Nursing helped to set standards and popularize the profession throughout the British Empire.
PETER | Were there peak moments in your spiritual journey? |
FLORENCE | They were when I was able to be a presence of gentleness and femininity to patients, when they were in a situation of total chaos and knew nothing but anger. |
PETER | Today, how should we treat soldiers returning from war? |
FLORENCE | With Post Traumatic Stress Disorder there are stresses on the invisible body as well the visible. People are forced to do things that disagree with their true essence as a soul. What is needed for returning personnel is to recognize that each has experienced hell upon Earth, and they must be brought to realize that now they can create heaven on Earth |
PETER | How do you view modern western hospital care? |
FLORENCE | Barbaric! It is no small thing that a western medical office is called a "practice". Practitioners are constantly practising their thoughts upon a needy, bleeding physical being. They see the body as a slab of meat, not someone embedded with a soul. |
PETER | How do you view the comparative status of doctors and nurses, today? |
FLORENCE | Letting an intuitive nurse begin a treatment instinctively, while the doctors are en route, will save many, many people. |
Toni comments: While forceful in some of her statements, she was demure in their presentation. She would rather talk about her work, than about her personal life.