celebrated english nurse, writer and statistician florence nightingale om, rrc was born 12 may 1820 at the villa colombaia, near the porta romana at bellosguardo in florence, italy, and was named after the city of her birth. inspired by a call from god she announced her decision to enter nursing in 1844, and rebelled against the expected role for a woman of her status, which was to become a wife and mother. nightingale worked hard to educate herself in the art and science of nursing, .in rome she met sidney herbert, a brilliant politician who was instrumental in facilitating nightingale’s nursing work in the crimea, and she became a key adviser to him in his political career. later in 1850, she visited a lutheran religious community where she observed the pastor and the deaconesses working for the sick and the deprived. , based on this experience she published her first book the institution of kaiserswerth on the rhine, for the practical training of deaconesses, and also received four months of medical training at the institute which formed the basis for her later career.