FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE
- She was born on 12th May, 1820 (that is exactly 193 years ago), in Florence, Italy. That’s why she was called Florence.
- She came from a wealthy background.
- She lived in Victorian times.
- She studied nursing against her father’s will.
- She was an innovator and broke away from all conventions of her time and class; she dreamed of neither a family nor children.
- She wanted to follow her vocation because she said that God wanted her to be a nurse.
- She trained herself in Germany and started working soon.
- She worked as a nurse during the Crimean War; she was desperate about injured soldiers’ lack of proper medical care.
- She was dubbed "The Lady with the Lamp" after her habit of making rounds at night to check on the recovery of her patients.
- She was very tough to be able to carry out her plans in a male dominated society.
- In 1860 Florence wrote a book on nursing entitled “Notes on Nursing “.
- She developed medical statistics and founded the St. Thomas Hospital in London with the “Nightingale Model”.
- She helped American nurses by directing their training during the Secession war.
- She fought for women’s rights.
- She died on August 13th, 1910.
