Florence Nightingale
The "Founder of Modern Nursing", Florence Nightingale was born on May 12, 1820, in Florence, Italy. In 1825, her parents purchased a home in Embley Park near Romsey, England.
Despite
her parents' objections, Florence pursued her desire to be a nurse. She traveled
to study European hospitals and worked as a nurse in France and Germany. When
the Crimean War began in 1851, Florence Nightingale organized a group of nurses
and took them to the battlefront in Russia. There she found that nearly half
the sick and wounded soldiers were dying because of primitive sanitation methods
and lack of nursing care. As a result of the nursing methods and strict sanitation
she set up, the death rate greatly decreased. To describe the reduction in
deaths, she drew ornate statistical diagrams known as coxcombs which indicated
her prowess as a nurse researcher.
Upon her return to England, she started the Nightingale School of Nursing as St. Thomas Hospital, London. The opening of the school marked the beginning of professional education in nursing.
During a number of other wars, including the American Civil War, she was consulted on questions concerning the organization and operation of battlefront hospitals.
Florence Nightingale died at her home in South Street, London, on August 13, 1910. She was buried on August 20, 1910, at St. Margaret's Church, East Wellow, England.
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