This article is for quizzes on Wednesday August 12th...
Florence Nightingale,
OM,
RRC (12 May 1820 – 13 August 1910) was a celebrated English social reformer and statistician, and the founder of modern
nursing. She came to prominence while serving as a manager of nurses trained by her during the
Crimean War, where she organised the tending to wounded soldiers. She gave nursing a highly favourable reputation and became an icon of Victorian culture, especially in the persona of "The Lady with the Lamp" making rounds of wounded soldiers at night.
Some recent commentators have asserted Nightingale's achievements in the Crimean War were exaggerated by the media at the time, to satisfy the public's need for a hero. Nevertheless, critics agree on the decisive importance of her follow-up achievements in professionalizing nursing roles for women. In 1860, Nightingale laid the foundation of professional nursing with the establishment of her
nursing school at
St Thomas' Hospital in London. It was the first secular nursing school in the world, now part of
King's College London. The
Nightingale Pledge taken by new nurses was named in her honour, and the annual
International Nurses Day is celebrated around the world on her birthday. Her social reforms include improving healthcare for all sections of British society, advocating better hunger relief in India, helping to
abolish prostitution laws that were over-harsh to women, and expanding the acceptable forms of female participation in the
workforce.
Nightingale was a prodigious and versatile writer. In her lifetime, much of her published work was concerned with spreading medical knowledge. Some of her tracts were written in
simple English so that they could easily be understood by those with poor literary skills. She also helped popularise the graphical presentation of
statistical data. Much of her writing, including her extensive work on religion and
mysticism, has only been published posthumously.
