Nurse Florence is a children’s book series aimed at promoting the education of medical science for kids between the grades of 2nd–7th. (Even parents are learning from this series!) The series is owned by Michael Dow who is also the author of the books. He has teamed up with different artists with varying skill sets to illustrate his books.
He has dedicated the series to Florence Nightingale, a woman who back in the 1800s, first created nursing into a profession, that we all benefit from today. The title character, Nurse Florence, can be seen in a way, as the reincarnation of Florence Nightingale. May we never forget this amazing woman!
In the books, there are three children; Jean, Condi, and Sonia, elementary age students that throughout their school days, are always getting into some shenanigans. When they get hurt, discover a skin allergy, or various other things happen, they get sent to Nurse Florence, who is always quick to their rescue and always answers their searching questions.
In each book, Nurse Florence always has a different appearance. I truly believe this is a good thing. It will help kids see that anyone can become a nurse if they work at it.
Michael Dow leaves a note in each book for parents explaining why he used correct terminology that may seem way too advanced for children. In the note, he states that when he was working as a lab assistant, he met a person who came in for a class. He asked this person if they were getting another degree. The person revealed to him that they were a physical education teacher at one of the most prestigious elementary schools in the city. In order for that person to teach at that school, they had to know the exact scientific names for the muscles in the body and more. This school was known for its graduates to go on to become physicians. With this in mind, Michael began his journey to write the Nurse Florence children’s book series to promote this health literacy in classrooms around the country. The more quality education a child receives, the better off they will be when they become adults.
I truly believe that this is a revolutionary series. I think the more classrooms, school libraries, and children’s hospitals it goes to, the more kids are exposed to this, and the more it will help shape future generations of nurses and other professions involving math and science.
At the time of this writing, there are 22 Nurse Florence books and many have also been translated to the French and Spanish languages as well. You can buy these books from the lulu website.
Here is a blurb about Michael Dow that I have pulled from his Amazon author page:
Michael Stephen Dow is married to Perla in Arizona and has 3 kids. Michael was on a path to attend medical school and then the events of September 11, 2001 occurred. Michael became angry at the terrorists and decided to join the US Air Force. He went through Officer Training School and then graduated specialized Navigator training to become an Electronic Warfare Officer. Michael deployed 6 times for the Global War on Terror between 2005 and 2009 with the EC-130H Compass Call mission. Michael medically retired in 2010 and then became an US Army contractor serving Wounded Warriors and ensuring they received all of their entitled benefits for 8 years. Michael always had a love for science and the human body so he then used his GI bill to go through nursing school and graduated in August 2020. Michael now works as a Registered Nurse on the Adolescent unit of an inpatient psychiatric hospital. Michael’s education is as follows: B.A. in Psychology from Auburn University in 1999, B.S. in Biology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2001, M.S. in Management from Troy University in 2010, Masters in Health Administration from the University of Phoenix in 2017, and M.S. from the University of Arizona in 2020 through its 15 month accelerated Masters Entry to the Profession of Nursing program. Michael is the Founder and Manager of Dow Creative Enterprises, LLC. His books have garnered the Silver Nautilus Book award in 2020 (Nurse Florence, Help I’m Bleeding) and an Award-Winning Finalist in the Religion category for the 2021 International Book Awards (A Prayer to Our Father in the Heavens: Possibly the Greatest Jewish Prayer of All Time). Michael believes we will need the best of science and religion to successfully navigate ourselves, our civilization, through the future obstacles we will face. More information can be found at www.DowCreativeEnterprises.com and www.NurseFlorence.org. Nurse Florence® is a federally registered trademark by Dow Creative Enterprises. The Nurse Florence® series seeks to promote science and health among children and to help increase the health literacy levels of our society. With teamwork, inclusion, faith and perseverance, we can bravely face our problems and help each other reach our better selves as well as our best collective good.
