Nursing and society: Evolution of Nursing and of capitalism in the 200 years of Florence Nightingale

Abstract

Objective: to analyze the relationships between the development of the Nursing labor and of capitalism over the 200 years of Florence Nightingale. Method: a logical-reflective and theoretical exposition based on interpretations of historical facts and Marxist theories. The analysis categories were the following: the creation and expansion of the Nightingalean Nursing Teaching System; the subsumption of the Nursing labor to capital; imperialism and international health; and the flexibilization of the Nursing labor. Results: the expansion of the Nightingale Teaching System has trained nurses on a global scale. The capitalist system transformed the Nursing labor in the twentieth century, culminating in the twenty-first century with precarious and intense turnover of nurses in their jobs. Conclusion: the Nursing labor, made professional by Nightingale, has assumed in the last 200 years a dialectical relationship with capitalism in which it both determines and is determined by it. New challenges, such as the Industry 4.0 technologies, are constantly imposed on the profession.