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About this quote

What does it mean?
Nightingale views hospitals as temporary steps in civilization rather than the ultimate solution for sick populations.
In plain terms
Hospitals are just a middle stage of civilization, not the final answer for health.
What can you take from it?
Think of institutions as transitional rather than final solutions to societal problems.

Where it applies

  • policy planning
  • healthcare reform
  • urban design

Putting it to work

  • plan beyond current systems
  • design preventative solutions

Questions to consider

  • What current solutions might be just temporary?
  • How will your field evolve?

Another view

It underestimates the essential role hospitals play in acute care.

More from Florence Nightingale

  1. God has taken away the greatest man of his generation, for Dr. Livingstone stood alone.

    Permalink to quote #9
  2. Women have no sympathy and my experience of women is almost as large as Europe.

    Permalink to quote #11
  3. It may seem a strange principle to enunciate as the very first requirement in a hospital that it should do the sick no harm.

    Permalink to quote #8

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