[Extract] Infection prevention and control measures such as hand hygiene, environmental cleaning and the use of personal protective equipment are used in health care to reduce the risk of transmitting infectious agents. The origin of many of these measures are credited to Florence Nightingale’s accomplishments in reducing the morbidity and mortality rates of British soldiers during the Crimean War (1854-1856) and are found in her seminal book, Notes on Nursing: What It Is and What It Is Not (1859). In Notes on Nursing, Nightingale highlighted to her audience the inextricable link between health and the sickroom environment and described basic infection prevention and control principles the caregiver should institute to restore health while limiting their risk of exposure to contagion. Even though Notes on Nursing was never written for vocational nursing, these guiding principles later formed the basis of the Nightingale model for nursing training and are collectively referred to as nursing’s first theory on environmental health. Despite the continual reverence for Nightingale’s contribution to infection prevention and control, little is known about the genesis of her ideas presented in Notes on Nursing nor their influences
