Arguably one of the most significant and renowned Victorians in world history is Florence Nightingale. In addition to being well known as a leader in nursing and social reforms, Florence Nightingale is also revered as the nurse who went and cared for soldiers fighting in the Crimean War. Nightingales part in the Crimean War would forever change the way that the sanitation and handling of patients would be conducted.
Florence Nightingale was born on May 12, 1820 into an affluent upper class British family and named after her city of birth in Florence, Italy. Florence’s parents, William and Frances Nightingale, also gave birth to a child one year before Florence and named her Parthenope. Both Parthenope and Florence became extremely well …show more content…
Florence believed that her true calling was nursing and she was determined to prove herself as a nurse and an independent woman. As a woman of her time and class it was expected of her to settle down and marry a man from the same social stature. Unfortunately that was the last thing Florence wanted to do and chose to defy her parents’ wishes when she left her home in England to study at the institute of Kaiserwerth in Germany. Florence gained her independence from her father after her return from Germany in 1853 when she accepted a position as a superintendent of the Hospital for Invalid Gentlewomen. (Fee and …show more content…
One of the rules set by Nightingale was to make sure her nursing staff got the proper sleep by having orderlies relief them of their duties and not allowing the nurses in the ward after dark. Nightingale spent every waking minute caring for all the patients that she could. She would even carry a lamp at night while she went from patient to patient checking on them. By relentlessly checking on the soldiers throughout the night and making sure they were comforted she earned one of her nicknames as “the lady with the lamp” as well as the eternal respect and gratitude of the soldiers she tended to.
Florence Nightingale was born on May 12, 1820 into an affluent upper class British family and named after her city of birth in Florence, Italy. Florence’s parents, William and Frances Nightingale, also gave birth to a child one year before Florence and named her Parthenope. Both Parthenope and Florence became extremely well …show more content…
Florence believed that her true calling was nursing and she was determined to prove herself as a nurse and an independent woman. As a woman of her time and class it was expected of her to settle down and marry a man from the same social stature. Unfortunately that was the last thing Florence wanted to do and chose to defy her parents’ wishes when she left her home in England to study at the institute of Kaiserwerth in Germany. Florence gained her independence from her father after her return from Germany in 1853 when she accepted a position as a superintendent of the Hospital for Invalid Gentlewomen. (Fee and …show more content…
One of the rules set by Nightingale was to make sure her nursing staff got the proper sleep by having orderlies relief them of their duties and not allowing the nurses in the ward after dark. Nightingale spent every waking minute caring for all the patients that she could. She would even carry a lamp at night while she went from patient to patient checking on them. By relentlessly checking on the soldiers throughout the night and making sure they were comforted she earned one of her nicknames as “the lady with the lamp” as well as the eternal respect and gratitude of the soldiers she tended to.