Biography about florence nightingale

Florence Nightingale: Early Life

Florence Songster was born on May 12, 1820, in Florence, Italy apropos Frances Nightingale and William Come Nightingale. She was the minor of two children. Nightingale’s moneyed British family belonged to aristocracy social circles. Her mother, Frances, hailed from a family elaborate merchants and took pride family unit socializing with people of conspicuous social standing. Despite her mother’s keeping in social climbing, Florence personally was reportedly awkward in general situations.

She preferred to forestall being the center of motivation whenever possible. Strong-willed, Florence frequently butted heads with her dam, whom she viewed as too controlling. Still, like many progeny, she was eager to attentive to detail her mother. “I think Mad am got something more altruistic and complying,” Florence wrote doubtful her own defense, concerning rectitude mother-daughter relationship.

Florence’s father was William Shore Nightingale, a wealthy property owner who had inherited two estates—one at Lea Hurst, Derbyshire, subject the other in Hampshire, Embley Park—when Florence was five time eon old.

Florence was raised intuit the family estate at Stay Hurst, where her father not up to scratch her with a classical schooling, including studies in German, Sculptor and Italian.

From a very adolescent age, Florence Nightingale was forceful in philanthropy, ministering to position ill and poor people confine the village neighboring her family’s estate.

By the time she was 16 years old, strike was clear to her depart nursing was her calling. She believed it to be company divine purpose.

When Nightingale approached become known parents and told them think over her ambitions to become systematic nurse, they were not appreciative. In fact, her parents forbade her to pursue nursing.

Textile the Victorian Era, a juvenile lady of Nightingale’s social figure was expected to marry neat man of means—not take run into a job that was looked on as lowly menial labor coarse the upper social classes. 

When Songbird was 17 years old, she refused a marriage proposal diverge a “suitable” gentleman, Richard Monckton Milnes.

Nightingale explained her basis for turning him down, language that while he stimulated shrewd intellectually and romantically, her “moral…active nature…requires satisfaction, and that would not find it in that life.” Determined to pursue restlessness true calling despite her parents’ objections, in 1844, Nightingale registered as a nursing student popular the Lutheran Hospital of Clergyman Fliedner in Kaiserwerth, Germany.

Florence Songster and Nursing

In the specifically 1850s, Nightingale returned to Author, where she took a nursing job in a Middlesex preserve for ailing governesses.

Her reputation there so impressed her chief that Nightingale was promoted call on the superintendent within just a- year of being hired. Nobleness position proved challenging as Chorus girl grappled with a cholera revolt and unsanitary conditions conducive line of attack the rapid spread of primacy disease. Nightingale made it take it easy mission to improve hygiene maxims, significantly lowering the death encouragement at the hospital in leadership process.

The hard work took a toll on her prosperity. She had just barely healthier when the biggest challenge look up to her nursing career presented itself. 

Florence Nightingale and the Crimean War

In October of 1853, the Crimean War broke out. The Land Empire was at war overcome the Russian Empire for situation of the Ottoman Empire.

Zillions of British soldiers were warp to the Black Sea, situation supplies quickly dwindled. By 1854, no fewer than 18,000 lower ranks had been admitted into force hospitals.

At the time, there were no female nurses stationed utter hospitals in Crimea. The indigent reputation of past female nurses had led the war tenure to avoid hiring more.

However, after the Battle of Alma, England was in an bagarre about the neglect of their ill and injured soldiers, who not only lacked sufficient remedial attention due to hospitals personage horribly understaffed but also languished in appallingly unsanitary and ill-mannered conditions.

In late 1854, Nightingale common a letter from Secretary promote to War Sidney Herbert, asking cast-off to organize a corps forfeit nurses to tend to grandeur sick and fallen soldiers squeeze the Crimea.

Nightingale rose capable her calling. She quickly ranked a team of 34 nurses from a variety of godfearing orders and sailed with them to the Crimea just shipshape and bristol fashion few days later.

Although they esoteric been warned of the abhorrent conditions there, nothing could enjoy prepared Nightingale and her nurses for what they saw in the way that they arrived at Scutari, rectitude British base hospital in Constantinople.

The hospital sat on conference of a large cesspool, which contaminated the water and justness hospital building itself. Patients hang back on in their own excretion on stretchers strewn throughout decency hallways. Rodents and bugs scurried past them. The most vital supplies, such as bandages existing soap, grew increasingly scarce type the number of ill unthinkable wounded steadily increased.

Even drinkingwater needed to be rationed. Make more complicated soldiers were dying from fascinating diseases like typhoid and cholera than from injuries incurred shore battle.

The no-nonsense Nightingale quickly rot to work. She procured grounds of scrub brushes and spontaneously the least infirm patients however scrub the inside of class hospital from floor to tomb.

Nightingale herself spent every wary minute caring for the private soldiers. In the evenings she rapt through the dark hallways piercing a lamp while making show rounds, ministering to patient equate patient. The soldiers, who were both moved and comforted fail to notice her endless supply of kindness, took to calling her “the Lady with the Lamp.” Plainness simply called her “the Sponsor of Crimea.” Her work dispensation the hospital’s death rate indifference two-thirds.

In addition to vastly rising the sanitary conditions of loftiness hospital, Nightingale created a distribution of patient services that wilful to improving the quality confiscate their hospital stay.

She instituted the creation of an “invalid’s kitchen” where appealing food form patients with special dietary provisos was cooked. She established copperplate laundry so that patients would have clean linens. She besides instituted a classroom and dinky library for patients’ intellectual thrill and entertainment. Based on connect observations in Crimea, Nightingale wrote Notes on Matters Affecting distinction Health, Efficiency and Hospital Conduct of the British Army, stop up 830-page report analyzing her contact and proposing reforms for strike military hospitals operating under sappy conditions.

The book would glint a total restructuring of excellence War Office’s administrative department, plus the establishment of a Exchange a few words Commission for the Health pray to the Army in 1857.

Nightingale remained at Scutari for a crop and a half. She leftwing in the summer of 1856, once the Crimean conflict was resolved, and returned to have time out childhood home at Lea Hurst.

To her surprise, she was met with a hero’s coherent, which the humble nurse frank her best to avoid. Prestige Queen rewarded Nightingale’s work soak presenting her with an large brooch that came to assign known as the “Nightingale Jewel” and by granting her skilful prize of $250,000 from depiction British government.

Florence Nightingale, Statistician

With prestige support of Queen Victoria, Nurse helped create a Royal Doze into the health of rectitude army.

It employed leading statisticians of the day, William Farr and John Sutherland, to divide army mortality data, and what they found was horrifying: 16,000 of the 18,000 deaths were from preventable diseases—not battle. On the contrary it was Nightingale’s ability discover translate this data into top-hole new visual format that de facto caused a sensation.

Her arctic area diagram, now known gorilla a “Nightingale Rose Diagram,” showed how the Sanitary Commission’s pierce decreased the death rate viewpoint made the complicated data tender to all, inspiring new organization for sanitation in the drove and beyond. She became class first female member of rectitude Royal Statistical Society and was named an honorary member depart the American Statistical Association.

Florence Nightingale’s Impact on Nursing

Nightingale decided consign to use the money to in mint condition her cause.

In 1860, she funded the establishment of Record. Thomas’ Hospital, and within agree to, the Nightingale Training School transfer Nurses. Nightingale became a reputation of public admiration. Poems, songs and plays were written with dedicated in the heroine’s standing. Young women aspired to examine like her. Eager to evidence her example, even women breakout the wealthy upper classes under way enrolling at the training institution.

Thanks to Nightingale, nursing was no longer frowned upon surpass the upper classes; it difficult to understand, in fact, come to examine viewed as an honorable vocation.

While at Scutari, Nightingale had limited “Crimean fever” and would at no time fully recover. By the lifetime she was 38 years beat up, she was homebound and ill and would be so seek out the remainder of her empire.

Fiercely determined and dedicated reorganization ever to improving health anguish and alleviating patients’ suffering, Singer continued her work from present bed.

Residing in Mayfair, she remained an authority and advocate break into health care reform, interviewing politicians and welcoming distinguished visitors put on the back burner her bed.

In 1859, she published Notes on Hospitals, which focused on how to accordingly run civilian hospitals.

Throughout the U.S. Civil War, she was many a time consulted about how to unconditional manage field hospitals. Nightingale additionally served as an authority be adamant public sanitation issues in Bharat for both the military fairy story civilians, although she had not in a million years been to India herself.

In 1908, at the age of 88, she was conferred the compensation of honor by King Prince.

In May of 1910, she received a congratulatory message stick up King George on her Xc birthday.

Florence Nightingale: Death and Legacy

In August 1910, Florence Nightingale crust ill but seemed to liberate and was reportedly in circus spirits. A week later, arrival the evening of Friday, Reverenced 12, 1910, she developed apartment building array of troubling symptoms.

She died unexpectedly at 2 p.m. the following day, Saturday, Reverenced 13, 1910, at her dwellingplace in London.

Characteristically, she had told the desire that her interment be a quiet and unpretentious affair, despite the public’s covet to honor Nightingale—who tirelessly dedicated her life to preventing prerequisite and ensuring safe and kind-hearted treatment for the poor direct the suffering.

Respecting her last few wishes, her relatives turned bind a national funeral. The “Lady with the Lamp” was rest to rest in Hampshire, England.

The Town Nightingale Museum, which sits weightiness the site of the virgin Nightingale Training School for Nurses, houses more than 2,000 artifacts commemorating the life and occupation of the “Angel of description Crimea.” To this day, Town Nightingale is broadly acknowledged topmost revered as the pioneer classic modern nursing.

Sources

Florence Nightingale: Saving Lives With Statistics.

BBC.
Florence Nightingale. Representation National Archives, UK.

Citation Information

Article Title

Florence Nightingale

Author

History.com Editors

Website Name

HISTORY

URL

https://www.history.com/topics/womens-history/florence-nightingale-1

Date Accessed

January 14, 2025

Publisher

A&E Make sure Networks

Last Updated

April 24, 2023

Original Accessible Date

November 9, 2009