![]() Growing up in a wealthy family, Florence Nightingale was homeschooled by her father and expected to get married at a young age. They had a summer home in Derbyshire called Lea Hurst, and a winter home in Hampshire called Embley. When they returned to England in 1821, the Nightingale family lived in two homes. Both Florence and her older sister Parthenope were named after the Italian cities where they were born. Although her parents were from England, she was born in Italy while they were traveling. ![]() However, she is mostly known for making hospitals a cleaner and safer place to be.įlorence Nightingale was born on May 12, 1820, in Florence, Italy. In addition to writing over 150 books, pamphlets and reports on health-related issues, she is also credited with creating one of the first versions of the pie chart. Nightingale's image has often been sentimentalized as the epitome of femininity, but she is especially remarkable for her intelligence, determination, and amazing capacity for work.Often called “the Lady with the Lamp,” Florence Nightingale was a caring nurse and a leader. 3, 4 In 1907, she was the first woman to be awarded the Order of Merit. ![]() She was one of the first in Europe to grasp the principles of the new science of statistics and to apply them to military-and later civilian-hospitals. Nightingale's work brought the field of public health to national attention. She thus gained the name of “the Lady with the Lamp,” and the London Times referred to her as a “ministering angel.” 5 Her popularity and reputation in Britain grew enormously and even the Queen was impressed. She worked endlessly to care for the soldiers themselves, making her rounds during the night after the medical officers had retired. 2 She fought with those military officers that she considered incompetent they, in turn, considered her unfeminine and a nuisance. Nightingale's accomplishments during the disastrous years the British army experienced in the Crimea were largely the result of her concern with sanitation and its relation to mortality, as well as her ability to lead, to organize, and to get things done. A Sanitary Commission, sent by the British government, arrived to flush out the sewers and improve ventilation. Nightingale believed the main problems were diet, dirt, and drains-she brought food from England, cleaned up the kitchens, and set her nurses to cleaning up the hospital wards. One of Nightingale's first purchases was of 200 Turkish towels she later provided an enormous supply of clean shirts, plenty of soap, and such necessities as plates, knives, and forks, cups and glasses. The death count was the highest of all hospitals in the region. 1 There were no towels, basins, or soap, and only 14 baths for approximately 2000 soldiers. Nightingale found there was no clean linen the clothes of the soldiers were swarming with bugs, lice, and fleas the floors, walls, and ceilings were filthy and rats were hiding under the beds. The soldiers were poorly cared for, medicines and other essentials were in short supply, hygiene was neglected, and infections were rampant. Courtesy of the Prints and Photographs Collection, History of Medicine Division, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health. Florence Nightingale at the hospital in Scutari, by Robert Riggs.
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