Florence Nightingale: The Lady With The Lamp

Florence Nightingale, also known as the “Lady with the Lamp”, is considered the founder of modern nursing. Her achievements have set the precedence of nursing for years to come. Nightingale was born on May 12th, 1820 in Florence, Italy to wealthy English parents. As a child, she was taught history, literature, mathematics, and philosophy by her father. At an early age, she would minister to the poor and ill people in the neighboring village of the family 's home. At 24, she felt that nursing was her divine purpose. At the time, nurses felt that their jobs were insignificant and inferior because they learned through experience rather than formal training. After Nightingale improved hospitals, established the principles of nursing, and raised …show more content…
She returned to London and took a nursing job in a hospital for an ailing governess. Florence Nightingale did such an outstanding job that she was promoted to superintendent less than a year later. Nightingale became determined to improve hygiene practices because of a cholera outbreak. The unsanitary conditions caused the disease to spread very quickly, but her efforts significantly lowered the death rate at the hospital. The Crimean War broke out in October 1853. By 1854, more than 18,000 soldiers had been admitted into military hospitals. There were no female nurses working at hospitals in the Crimea at the time because of their bad reputation. Despite the lack of female nurses, Nightingale received a letter from Secretary of War Sidney Herbert, requesting her to arrange a crew of nurses to care for the fallen and sick soldiers in the Crimea. Florence Nightingale quickly assembled a group of 38 nurses and sailed them to the Crimea a few days after receiving the letter. The troop went to Scutari, which was the British base hospital in Constantinople. The hospital was on top of a cesspool that contaminated the water and the building itself. The patients laid in their own excrement while bugs and rodents scampered nearby. The basic supplies became very limited due to growing number of wounded soldiers. A lot of soldiers were dying from infectious diseases like …show more content…
The school was devoted to teaching the philosophy and practices of Florence Nightingale. It was one of the first schools to teach nursing and midwifery as an official profession. It is now known as known as the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery at King’s College London. Nightingale became a role model to women from various backgrounds who aspired to be like her. Nursing was no longer deemed a mediocre job, but now an honorable