10/08/2016 00:42

Florence Nightingale was a truly inspirational nurse. Who was famous for her nursing work during the Crimean War (1854 - 56). She changed the face of nursing from a mostly untrained profession to a highly skilled and well-respected medical profession with very important responsibilities.

Florence Nightingale was born in Florence, Italy on 12 May 1820. Florence was named after the place of her birth. Her father was a wealthy landowner. Later she was brought up in Derbyshire where she spent her summers and Hampshire where she spent her winters.

At the time when Florence was born, many girls did not receive any type of education. So, she was expected to do - almost nothing but she 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.

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. In 1849 she travelled to Europe to study the European hospital system and following year  she went to Alexandria, Egypt and began studying at the institute of saint Vincent de paul. Eventually in 1851 Florence went to Germany to train as a nurse. After became a nurse she started to work as superintendent of a hospital in London 1853. in 1854 the Crimean war broke out.

Florence Nightingale was asked to go to Turkey to manage the nursing of British soldiers wounded in the Crimean War (1854 - 56). She travelled 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.

Florence was very dedicated to her job. She would often visit the soldiers at night when everyone was asleep just to make sure they were ok. She carried a lamp as she walked the halls of the battlefield hospital and became known as the "lady with the lamp". Florence became a true hero to the soldiers and everyone back home in England. she died in 1910.