Florence Nightingale Biography / Autobiography / Memoir resources
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Full Name: Miss Florence Nightingale |
Short Biography of Florence Nightingale
Known as the “Lady with the Lamp” because of her nightly rounds visiting wounded soldiers, Florence Nightingale staunchly worked to better the conditions of the British soldier. With her experience in the Crimean War, she would return home to England a national icon, but would reject any honors placed upon her. She would set up the first school for nurses in London and, as a result, was responsible saving countless lives in the battlefield.
Born in Italy, young Florence was brought to England at a young age because her father had inherited a massive estate in Derbyshire. Her parents, who were both used to the high life that wealth brought them, did much in the way of her education. She learned the classics, studied several languages, and was treated as royalty. But, this was not fulfilling to a young lady with a burning ambition for independence, work, and a hope to better society.
By the mid 1840s, Nightingale knew she wanted to work in a hospital. Nurses were not looked upon highly, but Florence wanted to change that. Without her parents’ approval or support, she studied by working as a private nurse and attending a German school and hospital. Within ten years, she had become superintendent of the Institution for Sick Gentlewomen in Distressed Circumstances. Here, oddly enough, she learned about business management and leadership. She was able to test her own theories on how things might operate more smoothly in hospitals and for those women who were working in the field.
One year later, she was on her way to serve with her staff in the Crimean War. Infection, disease, and low morale were rampant. The support she received from the British army was insufficient to buy all the supplies she needed. Some supplies that were shipped never arrived, and the makeshift hospital sat on a sewage dumping ground. Luckily, she brought with her enough funds to buy supplies through donations from the London Times. But, before she could do anything, she knew she would have to make her presence and her goals known, and earn and the respect of the doctors and soldiers.
After her intervention and government aid, the death rate of injured British soldiers fell by 66%. Her next issue still involved the politics of her situation. She had to calm the relations that different religious sects, namely Protestant and Catholic, had against each other.
When Florence Nightingale returned to London a few years later, she fought for reform in military hospitals and in the entire medical care system. In fact, most modern military hospital practices carried out in England are rooted in what Nightingale started. In an almost militaristic fashion, she was able to take over and eventually change the entire health care system for soldiers. Before anyone had really noticed what had happened, she completely revamped the War Office in Britain.
By 1860, she was the expert on military and civilian sanitation. She set up the Nightingale School for the training of nurses at St. Thomas’ Hospital and was even influential in helping England plan the best route of dealing with sanitation and famine in England. Even though Florence Nightingale suffered ill-health herself later in life and eventually went blind by 1907, she had changed the face of health care on all levels, both military and public in what would directly affect the entire western world.
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