Florence nightingale was born on the 12/5/1810 into a very
rich, upper class well connected British Family, at Bellosguardo
In Florence Italy, and was named after her city of birth. Inspired
by a call from God in February 1837 she decided to go into nursing
to answer Gods call. Her mum and her other siblings were totally against
it. They wanted her to marry and have a family, that’s what girls were suppose to do
in that time, espically if you came from the
With the money and connections her father had, he got Florence
the job of superintendent at the institute for the care of sick
gentlewomen in upper Harley Street London. Florences
most famous contribution to nursing came during the Crimean
War. After hearing some horrific and sad stories of the conditions
that the wounded and sick were being keep in she and 38 other
nurses decided to go the to the war and help the sick and wounded
in the hospitals. History has shown us her first experience in
of the war was to say it was a disaster for her and the
men she was nursing. During her first winter deaths rates rose
in her care, in all there was a total of 4,077. Ten
times more soldiers died from illnesses such as Typhus, Typhoid,
Cholera and Dysentery than battle wounds.
Florence had to work very hard to educated herself in the art of science
and nursing, in spite of opposition from some family members and
close friends, but her father saw that she was very determinate to go
into nursing.
Although the hospital was over crowded and had a very defective sewers and
lack of ventilation Florences knowledge of basic hygiene was very limited
so much so that a sanitary commission was sent in to sort the problems out.
With this death rates were sharply reduced by 44%. During the Crimean war
Florence gained the nick name, the lady with lamp.
While in the Crimean war (1855) a Florence Nightingale fund
was set up for training nurses. There was outpouring of generous donations.
Sidney Herbert served as secretary, and the Duke of Cambridge was chairman.
By 1859 the Nightingale fund had £45,000 at her disposal. There was a host of other
training schemes set up (St Thomas Hospital) is now called Florence Nightingale
School of Nursing and Midwifery and is part of Kings College London. The first
trained Nightingale nurses began work on 16/5/1865 at Liverpool workhouse
Infirmary. There was also funds raised for the Royal Buckinghamshire
Hospital in Aylesbury near her family home .With her bad experience
in Crimea on sanitation and her new knowledge on hygiene. Nightingale
Wrote “Every day sanitary, or the knowledge of nursing, or in other words,
of how to put the constitution in such a state as that it will have no diseases,
takes a higher place, it is recognised as the knowledge which every one ought to
have- distinct from medical knowledge, which any one profession can have.
In 1859 Nightingale wrote notes on nursing a slim 136 page book which has served as
the cornerstone of todays nursing. Also in the 1870s Nightingale mentored Linda
Richards, America’s first trained nurse.
By 1882 Nightingale nurses had sprung up all over the world. USA, Canada, Japan,
Ireland, England, and some parts of mainland Europe. During the American
Civil War the union government asked for her help on organizing field hospital
and medicine for the sick and wounded.
In 1883 Nightingale was awarded the Royal Red Cross by Queen Victoria.
In 1907 she became the first woman to be awarded the order of Merit.
In 1908 she was given the freedom of London. What Florence Nightingale
has achieved in awards and her knowledge in nursing and what she has
done for the health of the world and for all working in the health services
through the world is second to none. But it seems that nobody is invincible to
falling into bad health. From 1857 Florence was bed ridden with depression and
brucellosis.
Her birth day is now celebrated as international CFS awareness day.
On the 13/8/1910 aged 90 Florence Nightingale died peacefully in her sleep in
her room at 10 South Street Park Lane London. The offer of a burial in Westminster
Abbey was declined by her family. She is buried in the graveyard at St Margarets
Church in East Wellow Hampshire England.
Florence nightingale 1820=1910 R.I.P.
