![]() ![]() Nightingale used data visualization to convey meaningful patterns in her data and to communicate them to others in a very compelling way. The different colours convey the cause of death: blue represents soldier deaths from infections and preventable diseases, red were those from wounds, while black indicates deaths from accidents and other causes. This visualization might look a bit like a pie chart, but it was designed to show change over time with each triangular wedge indicating the month of the year. Diagram of the causes of mortality in the army in the East (1858) by Florence Nightingale, April 1854-March 1855 and April 1855-March 1856. She subsequently conveyed the patterns she found in her data in what has come to be known as the Nightingale Rose Chart (see Figure 1.10, below), also known as a polar area diagram or a ‘coxcomb’ chart.įigure 1.10. For two years, she meticulously gathered mortality data and arranged them in very detailed tables that contained several columns and rows upon rows of numbers. Nightingale tended to soldiers during the Crimean War (1853 to 1856) where she observed that more soldiers were dying from diseases caught in camp than on the actual battlefield. She is probably best known as the founder of modern nursing, but she was also a statistician and early pioneer of data visualizations. One of the most famous examples of the power of data visualizations to persuade involves Florence Nightingale. The Power of Data Visualizations to Tell Impactful Storiesĭata visualizations are powerful because they help us identify patterns, make sense of relationships between variables, understand trends … and because they enable us to more readily tell a story. She avoided the dry tables used by most statisticians of the time, and instead devised a novel graph to illustrate the impact of hospital and nursing practice reform on army mortality rates.Module 1: An Introduction to Data Literacy and Data Visualization However, knowing numbers alone have limited persuasive powers, Nightingale used her skills in statistical communication to convince the British parliament of the need to act. She discovered deaths due to disease were more than seven times the number of deaths due to combat, because of unsanitary hospital conditions. With her improved data, Nightingale put her statistical skills to use. More than 150 years after Nightingale pointed out the need to standardise datasets before comparing them, we are certain she would have something to say about this. This is due to differences in testing rules in different countries. One of the challenges in monitoring the COVID-19 pandemic has been the lack of standardised datasets experts can compare on the number of people infected. The ability to compare datasets from different places is critical to understanding outbreaks. Now, worldwide, there are similar standards for recording diseases, such as the International Classification of Diseases. This helped her better understand both the numbers and causes of deaths. Using her statistical skills, Nightingale set to work to introduce new guidelines on how to record sickness and mortality across military hospitals. She soon discovered three different death registers existed, each giving a completely different account of the deaths among the soldiers. ![]() Upon arriving at the British military hospital in Turkey in 1856, Nightingale was horrified at the hospital's conditions and a lack of clear hospital records.Įven the number of deaths was not recorded accurately. Download the ABC News app and subscribe to our range of news alerts for the latest on how the pandemic is impacting the world. ![]() Stay up-to-date on the coronavirus outbreak Nightingale was home-schooled by her father but insisted on learning maths from a mathematician before she trained as a nurse. She developed an early passion for statistics.Īs a child she collected shells and supplemented her collection with tables and lists. Nightingale was one of the first female statisticians. Read our full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic An early spark But it was actually her statistical skills that led to Nightingale saving many more lives. Nightingale is renowned for her career in nursing, but less well known for her pioneering work in medical statistics. Were she alive today, Florence Nightingale would understand the importance of data in dealing with a public health emergency. One person understood this a long time ago. However, the COVID-19 outbreak has shown just how necessary a clear understanding of data and modelling is to help prevent the spread of disease. ![]() When you're in a medical emergency, you don't typically think of calling a statistician. ![]()
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