Mary Seacole and claims of evidence‐based practice and global influence

AIM: The aim of this paper was to explore the contribution of Mary Seacole to nursing and health care, notably in comparison with that of Florence Nightingale. BACKGROUND: Much information is available, in print and electronic, that presents Mary Seacole as a nurse, even as a pioneer nurse and leader in public health care. Her own memoir and copious primary sources, show rather than she was a businesswoman, who gave assistance during the Crimean War, mainly to officers. Florence Nightingale's role as the major founder of the nursing profession, a visionary of public health care and key player in advocating ‘environmental’ health, reflected in her own Notes on Nursing, is ignored or misconstrued. DESIGN: Discussion paper. DATA SOURCES: British newspapers of 19th century and The Times digital archive; Australian and New Zealand newspaper archives, published memoirs, letters and biographies/autobiographies of Crimean War participants were the major sources. RESULTS: Careful examination of primary sources, notably digitized newspaper sources, British, Australian and New Zealand, show that the claims for Seacole's ‘global influence’ in nursing do not hold, while her use of ‘practice‐based evidence’ might better be called self‐assessment. Primary sources, moreover, show substantial evidence of Nightingale's contributions to nursing and health care, in Australia, New Zealand, the USA and many countries and the UK much material shows her influence also on hospital safety and health promotion.