Florence Nightingale

 

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Florence was named after the place of her birth and is known as 'The lady with the Lamp'.
Florence Nightingale was born in Florence, Italy on 12 May 1820. Her father was a wealthy landowner. She was brought up in Derbyshire (where she spent her summers) and Hampshire ( where she spent her winters).
Rich English girls such as Florence were expected to do - almost nothing. Florence couldn't bear the boredom of it. Instead she became interested in hospitals and by 1853 was running a hospital in London.

Education

At the time when Florence was born, many girls did not receive any type of education. Florence was very lucky because her father, William Nightingale, believed that all women should receive an education. He taught Florence and her sister a variety of subjects ranging from science and mathematics to history and philosophy.

Teenage years

As Florence grew up she developed an interest in helping others. She cared for sick pets and servants whenever she had the chance.

At seventeen years of age, she believed she was called into service by God “to do something toward lifting the load of suffering from the helpless and miserable.”

At first her parents refused to allow her to become a nurse because, at that time, it was not thought to be a suitable profession for a well educated woman. But Florence did not give up. Eventually in 1851 her father gave his permission and Florence went to Germany to train as a nurse.

Working Life

1849 - traveled to Europe to study the European hospital system.
1850 - traveled to Alexandria, Egypt and began studying nursing at the Institute of Saint Vincent de Paul.
1851 - aged thirty-one, went to Germany to train to become a nurse.
1853 - became superintendent of the Hospital for Gentlewomen in London.
1854 - the Crimean War broke out.

Crimean War

In 1854 Florence Nightingale was asked to go to Turkey to manage the nursing of British soldiers wounded in the Crimean War (1854 - 56). She traveled to Scutari (the location where the wounded and ill soldiers of the Crimean War were taken) to help the wounded soldiers.

She found the hospital conditions to be in a very poor state. Many of the wounded were unwashed and were sleeping in overcrowded, dirty rooms without blankets or decent food. In these conditions diseases such as typhus, cholera and dysentery spread quickly. As a result, the death rate amongst wounded soldiers was very high. Most soldiers died from infections and disease. (Only one in six died from their war wounds; the other five in six died from infections and disease.)

 

Florence and her nurses changed these conditions. They set up a kitchen, fed the wounded from their own supplies, dug latrines for sanitation, and asked for help from the wives of the wounded. They were then able to properly care for the ill and wounded and the death rate among the soldiers dropped.