BBC - Primary History - Famous People - Florence Nightingale Florence Nightingale Why is Florence Nightingale famous? How did she become famous? Florence Nightingale went to the Crimean War to nurse wounded soldiers. She and her nurses saved many lives. When did she live? Florence was born in 1820. This was ten years before Britain had its first steam passenger railway. She lived through the long reign of Queen Victoria. She died in 1910, after the age of electricity, cars and planes began. What Florence Nightingale did Florence Nightingale made hospitals cleaner places. She showed that trained nurses and clean hospitals helped sick people get better. She was the founder of modern nursing. Florence's childhood A rich family Florence's father was William Nightingale, a rich banker. William and his wife Fanny went to Italy after they married in 1818. Florence was born in Italy on 12th May. She was named after the city of Florence. Florence's sister Florence had an older sister, Frances Parthenope (known as 'Pop'). Pop was born in Italy too. The girls had lessons from their father.

Florence was clever, and liked history and maths. The Nightingales had a winter home in Hampshire and a summer home in Derbyshire. They had servants . What did most women do? In Victorian Britain, poor women worked as servants or in factories . Rich girls like Florence were expected to marry and look after a home, perhaps doing charity work. Why Florence did not marry Florence was very religious. From the age of 16 she believed God wanted her to do important work. When she was 22, a young writer asked her to marry him. After seven years making up her mind, Florence said no. How to become a nurse? Choices for Florence Florence could go to parties. She could travel. In 1849 she visited Egypt. But she did not want a life of leisure. She wanted to be a nurse . Why her parents said no When Florence told her parents, they were shocked. Hospitals at this time were dirty and horrible. Doctors did operations with no anaesthetic . Most people who went into hospital died. Florence could not possibly work as a nurse. The trouble with nurses Nurses were not respectable or trained. Florence's parents sent her to Italy, to forget about nursing.

She met a young Englishman, Sidney Herbert, and he told her rich people should help the poor. Florence came home determined to be a nurse. Florence gets her way In 1851, Florence went to Germany, to a Christian nursing school for women. She learned nursing for three months. It was hard work, but she loved it. First job in a hospital In 1853 a rich friend asked Florence to run a London hospital for 'Invalid Gentlewomen'. There was no pay, but Mr Nightingale gave her money. She made lots of useful changes in the hospital. At home, when her father and sister became ill, Florence nursed them. The Crimean War Britain goes to war In 1854 the Crimean War began. Britain, France and Turkey were fighting Russia. The Crimea was part of Russia. British soldiers went to the war in ships. Bad news People read about the war in newspapers. The news was at first bad. William Howard Russell was a reporter for The Times. He wrote that he had seen soldiers dying of hunger and cold. Many were sick. There was no proper medical care. Hospitals need nurses Things got worse after battles. Army hospitals were filled with wounded men.

But without nurses, more soldiers were dying from diseases than in battles. Florence gets her chance Sidney Herbert was now Minister for War . He asked Florence to lead a team of nurses to the Crimea. This was her chance to do something important! The Lady with the Lamp Florence goes to war Florence and 38 nurses arrived in Turkey in November 1854. At first the Army doctors wanted nothing to do with her. Florence would not go away. So the doctors let the nurses into the Army hospital at Scutari. Florence got busy cleaning up. The horrible hospital The hospital was overcrowded and filthy. There were not enough beds, so men lay on the floor. They were not washed. There were no proper toilets. Drains were blocked. Rats ran everywhere. The smell was terrible. Green bread and diseases The patients ate bread that was mouldy-green, and meat 'more like leather', Florence said. Without good food, sick men could not get better. Without clean bandages, clean beds and clean water, many died from diseases. What Florence did Florence worked 20 hours a day. She went to the town to buy fresh food.

She started clean kitchens, and a French chef named Alexis Soyer came to cook better meals. She paid workmen to clear the drains. Soon the hospital was cleaner, and fewer men were dying. Walking with her lamp At night Florence walked around the wards , to make sure the men were comfortable. She sat with dying soldiers. She wrote letters home for men who could not write. She carried a lantern , so the soldiers called her 'The Lady with the Lamp'. What Florence did next Home a heroine People in Britain gave money to a fund to help the 'Nightingale Nurses'. When Florence came home in 1856, people called her a heroine . The Sultan of Turkey sent her a diamond bracelet! Queen Victoria wrote a letter of thanks. Florence went home to Derbyshire by train. She called herself 'Miss Smith' so people would not know who she was. She did not want any fuss. Meeting the Queen Later Florence met Queen Victoria. She told the Queen what was wrong with Army hospitals. Florence went on visiting Army camps and hospitals. She wrote letters to important people. Change comes The Army started training doctors. Hospitals got cleaner. Soldiers got better clothes and food.

In 1860 the Nightingale Training School for nurses was opened at St Thomas's Hospital in London. Florence's book Notes for Nursing helped many student nurses. Florence's last years Florence worked so hard she became ill. For the last 40 years of her life she stayed in bed most of the time. But she went on writing letters, collecting facts and figures. In 1907 she was awarded the Order of Merit . She was the first woman to receive this honour. Florence Nightingale died on 13th August 1910. Florence Nightingale | Facts Summary Information View articles featuring Florence Nightingale Florence Nightingale Summary Florence Nightingale was a guiding force in the field of nursing. She was born May 12, 1820, to William “WEN” and Frances “Fanny” Nightingale in Florence, Italy. Her parents named her after the city she was born in; just over two years earlier they had named her sister—Frances Parthenope “Parthe”—after Parthenopolis, a Greek settlement now part of Naples, Italy.

William Nightingale was the son of a Sheffield, England, banker and had changed his surname to Nightingale from Shore in order to inherit the estate of a great uncle, a mining magnate in Lea, Derbyshire, England. In 1817, William married Frances “Fanny” Smith, the daughter of William Smith, an abolitionist Whig member of Parliament. They embarked on an extended tour of the Mediterranean for their honeymoon, returning to England in 1821 with their two daughters. Florence Nightingale’s Early Life The Nightingales lived at Lea Hall from 1821 to 1825, until their new home, Lea Hurst was completed. However, Fanny deemed Lea Hurst inadequate almost immediately, with “only 15 bedrooms” and located too far from London. It became their summer home. William purchased Embley Park, a large estate in Hampshire, which became their permanent residence.

It was at Embley Park in February 1837 that Florence received a calling from God; she wrote “God has spoke to me and called me to His service.” Though she did not know what that service would be, she knew that the society life her parents and sister enjoyed so much was not going to be enough for her. She had begun a courtship with Richard Monckton Milnes, a childhood friend, and began spending time visiting the poor and sick. She asked to stay on at Lea Hurst after the rest of the family returned to Embley in 1843, but Fanny would not allow it. In the fall of 1845, the village of Wellow was hit with an influenza epidemic, and Florence nursed several people on their deathbed. Florence knew what her calling was by this time, but the rest of her family, her mother in particular, thought she had chosen an occupation at odds with her position in society. At the time, nurses were stereotyped as coming from the lower classes with social standing little better than prostitutes, but Florence was determined to change that.

In 1849, after a long courtship, she finally refused marriage to Milnes, who went on to marry Annabella Hungerford Crewe. He and his wife continued to be staunch supporters and friends of Florence. Florence Nightingale: The Nurse After Florence nursed her great-aunt Elizabeth Evans through her final illness, Fanny considered turning her aunt’s home, Cromford Bridge House, into a nursing home in an attempt to placate Florence, but this was not enough. Florence began studying nursing in earnest, reading everything that had been written about the vocation, volunteering at hospitals, and visiting a nursing institution in Germany for training several times. She began to notice that many of the popular treatments available—blood letting, administering infusions of arsenic, mercury, and opiates—were actually killing more patients than they saved. She believed and began proving she could save more patients from death by caring for their basic needs—keeping them warm, clean, rested, and well-fed. In 1853, in the face of continued opposition and strong objections from her family, Florence was appointed Superintendent of Nurses at the Institution for the Care of Sick Gentlewomen in Distressed Circumstances in London.

She agreed to take the position only on the condition that the institution begin accepting patients of all religions, not just members of the Church of England. At the facility, Florence was able to demonstrate her administrative and nursing skills, cutting the cost of patient care while improving the standard of care. She did not receive pay for this position and was responsible for her own expenses. Florence Nightingale In The Crimean War In March 1854, the Crimean War began when Britain and France declared war on Russia after the latter invaded autonomous areas of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. Much of the fighting occurred in the Crimea, on the Black Sea. The British wounded were transported 300 miles across the sea to Scutari (now Üsküdar), just outside of what is now Istanbul, Turkey. Florence had already planned to travel to the Crimea when, in October, the Secretary of War, Sir Sidney Herbert, asked her to gather a group of nurses to nurse the wounded at the military hospital in Scutari. On November 4, 1854, she arrived with 37 other nurses at the Barracks Hospital, a huge, quadrangular building with sides nearly a quarter mile long.

Approximately 18,000 wounded and dying men lay in rooms and lined the corridors. The conditions in the hospital were deplorable: there were miles of corridors stuffed with wounded and dying men; bandages were rags that were clotted with blood; food consisted of watery soup; and sanitary conditions were such that cholera and lice were rampant. During the next 21 months, Florence worked to improve conditions in the hospital. She and her nurses bathed the soldiers, washed their linens, and fed them more substantial food. She eventually established a separate kitchen with her own money to prepare easily digested food for patients. She secured a source of clean drinking water and improved overall sanitary conditions. She set up a system for receiving patients, the basis of modern triage. The mortality rate declined 2% because of her efforts. She personally attended to countless men, many on their deathbeds. She made so many endless rounds, carrying a lamp with her in the late hours of the night, that she became known as the “Lady with the Lamp,” a nickname that was published in an account of her work in The London Times.

Support for Florence’s efforts to improve conditions for the war wounded spilled over into her efforts to establish nursing as a vocation for women. On November 29, 1855, a public meeting was held in London to formally recognize her efforts, resulting in the creation of the Nightingale Fund—the only recognition Florence would accept. She used this fund after the war to help establish the Nightingale Training School at St. Thomas’s Hospital in London in 1860, the first official nursing school in England. Florence traveled to Balaclava in May 1855 to visit hospitals in and around the city. She became ill with “Crimean fever”—probably brucellosis, a bacterial infection that became chronic. She was acutely ill for 12 days, and although she recovered enough to return to Scutari and her duties there, she periodically became chronically ill at least through the 1870s. The Crimean War ended in February 1856 and in March, Florence returned to Balaclava, staying there until the hospitals closed. She returned privately to England, arriving at Lea Hurst in August.

In September, she met with Queen Victoria and Prince Albert at Balmoral to discuss improvements that should be made to the military hospital system. From 1857 onward, Florence was periodically bedridden as the result of Crimean fever; however, she continued to work—writing, advising, and mentoring. In 1857, she issued a confidential report on the army medical department during the Crimean War. The next year, she published Notes on Matters affecting the Health, Efficiency and Hospital Administration of the British Army. In both works, she used statistics to prove her point and was a pioneer in the graphical representation of statistics—the polar area diagram was also known as the Nightingale rose diagram. A Pioneer In Nursing Her reports and testimony before a commission on the sanitary conditions of the army led to numerous improvements and the opening of an army medical college in 1861, a year after the Nightingale Training School was established. Florence also advised the army on sanitary conditions in India during and after the India Mutiny of 1857, which led to the establishment of a Sanitary Department within the Indian government. In 1859, Florence published Notes on Nursing.

She intended the book to help in the practice of nursing, not to be a comprehensive guide—it continues to be used as an introduction to nursing today. During the American Civil War (1861–1865) and the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871), Florence was asked for advice by various countries and independently by doctors and nurses. In the 1870s, she mentored Linda Richards, the first professionally trained American nurse, who established nurse training programs in the U.S. and Japan. Florence helped establish numerous nursing organizations throughout the remainder of her life and received numerous awards for her work, including the German order of the Cross of Merit and the French gold medal of Secours aux Blessés Militaires. Queen Victoria awarded her the Royal Red Cross in 1883. She was appointed a Lady of Grace of the Order of St John in 1904 and became the first woman to be awarded the Order of Merit in 1907. She was given the Honorary Freedom of the City of London in 1908.

On May 10, 1910 she was presented with the badge of honor of the Norwegian Red Cross Society. On August 13 of that same year, Florence died peacefully at her home in London. An offer was extended for burial at Westminster Abbey but her family refused, burying her in the graveyard at St. Margaret Church in East Wellow, Hampshire, close to Embley Park. The Lady With The Lamp By Deborah Pulliam Florence Nightingale was distinctly not the romantic, retiring Victorian gentlewoman most of us imagine. She was a bright, tough, driven professional, a brilliant organizer and statistician, and one of the most influential women in 19th-century England. The best-known aspect of her life–nursing wounded soldiers at Scutari Hospital in Turkey during the Crimean War–comprised, in fact, a very small part of her 50-year career, but provided the springboard from which it all began.

Looking through a rough reproduction window at the London museum that bears her name is a little like peering over Nightingale’s shoulder in the Crimea and confronting the intimate details of life there–including her hand-drawn plan of the nurses’ quarters in the Barrack Hospital at Scutari, her personal seal and wax for letters, some of her books and her dispatch case, as well as an original letter written from the hospital and her famous lamp. The museum’s permanent exhibit documents not only the war years, but also follows Nightingale throughout her extraordinary but largely overlooked life. A brief introductory film emphasizes her wealthy Victorian upbringing and expectations of a brilliant social career. In fact, Florence Nightingale accomplished so much during her full life that it is intriguing to wonder how she might be remembered had the public not become so fixated on the romantic image of her night-time rounds by candlelight at Scutari. This small museum highlights all of her many accomplishments: introducing sanitary science to nursing and the British Army; raising the image of the British soldier from a brawling lowlife to a heroic working man; transforming nursing from an occupation which previously had been considered fit only for prostitutes to a respectable profession; establishing a nursing school at St.

Thomas’s Hospital; laying out the principles of nursing in print in 1860; and revolutionizing the public health system of India without leaving England. Ironically, during much of her long and accomplished life (she died in 1910, at the age of 90) the general public assumed she was already dead. Nightingale actually encouraged this misinformation. She returned from the Crimea under an assumed name and walked the last few miles to her parents’ home from the train station. Uninterested in her celebrity status, she wanted only to continue her work in peace and quiet. She refused photographs and interviews, and avoided anything not directly related to her work for a Royal Commission investigating health in the British Army. Although she was undoubtedly the driving force behind the work, she almost never appeared in public. Her thoughts and work were with the army. In a private note, written at the end of 1856, she wrote: Oh my poor men who endured so patiently. I feel I have been such a bad mother to you to come home and leave you lying in your Crimean grave. Seventy-three percent in eight regiments during six months from disease alone–who thinks of that now?

But if I could carry any one point which would prevent any part of the recurrence of this our colossal calamity then I should have been true to the cause of those brave dead. In the post-war period, Nightingale began studying new designs for modern hospitals all over Europe, in order to help the army reform its health and sanitary systems. In Paris she found a revolutionary design in which separate units, or pavilions, made up one large hospital. By making each pavilion a light and airy self-contained unit, the hospital minimized the spread of infections. She later succeeded in promoting this design in England. Her research culminated in Notes on Hospitals, published in 1859, which combined two papers presented the year before at the Social Science Congress. Her words had a profound effect. She addressed every aspect of hospital management, from the purchase of iron bedsteads to replace the wooden ones, to switching to glass cups instead of tin. The 108-page book went on into three editions and established Nightingale once more as an international authority. Her advice and approval were sought for hospitals all over Europe, from Holland to Portugal and even far-off India. In particular, the governors of St.

Thomas’s Hospital in London consulted with her on a matter key to the hospital’s future. The ancient hospital in Southwark was situated on land needed by railroads for a new line. The hospital’s governors had to decide whether they should sell the entire property and build a new facility in a better location, or allow the railroad to buy only part of the land and rebuild the hospital on the remainder. Some governors felt the hospital should stay where it had been for hundreds of years, serving the same community. When they asked Nightingale for her opinion, rather than simply accepting the notion that the hospital was in fact serving patients in the area, she drew up and analyzed statistics on the origin of St. Thomas’s patients and proved that most did not come from the immediate neighbourhood as the governors had assumed. She also compiled a convincing body of statistics to prove that moving the hospital to a healthier site would improve the patients’ chances of recovery. After completing her analysis, in a telling display of political acumen, she sent it not to the body of governors as a whole, but to one particular governor: the Prince Consort. In the end, the governors decided to move St. Thomas’s to its present location in Lambeth.

At the time, Nightingale deemed the site to be unhealthy; nevertheless, the hospital was constructed with the pavilions she endorsed, and was finally completed in 1871. If you look carefully from Westminster Bridge, you can see the remaining pavilions wedged in between more contemporary parts of the hospital that have since engulfed the original. Ask for directions in the museum, and you can walk through the new parts of the hospital to Nightingale’s original entrance hall. Success piled on success. In 1860, after five years of gruelling work, she completed a voluminous report that resulted in the development of an Army Medical School in addition to greatly improved army barracks, hospitals, and living conditions for soldiers. Also in 1860 she founded the Nightingale Training School for nurses at St. Thomas’s Hospital. Far more than merely giving her name to the school, Nightingale personally advised on all matters of instruction, admissions supervision, and discipline. Her involvement extended beyond her professional duties; she often invited graduates to tea and kept in touch with them long after they had launched their careers.

Nightingale also published a 75-page booklet, Notes on Nursing: What It Is, and What It Is Not. A popular book, its initial reception still did not foretell of its lasting importance. The book is still in print today in a facsimilie of the first edition and in a reprint of the second enlarged edition. In fact, it is the best-selling item in the museum’s small shop. “I think if you’re only going to buy one thing from our shop, it’s going to be Notes on Nursing,” says Alex Attewell, curator of the museum. While medical knowledge has significantly increased since Nightingale’s time, her common sense and wisdom still forms a solid basis for caring for people. She believed, first and foremost, in hygiene (fresh air, cleanliness, clean water, proper drainage, and plenty of light), and constant consideration for the patient’s feelings. In one particularly empathetic passage, she addresses the importance of a quiet environment: Unnecessary noise, or noise that creates an expectation in the mind, is that which hurts a patient. It is rarely the loudness of the noise, the effect upon the organ of the ear itself, which appears to affect the sick.

How well a patient will generally bear, e.g., the putting up of a scaffolding close to the house, when he cannot bear the talking, still less the whispering, especially if it be a familiar voice, outside his door. Nightingale’s common-sense approach to health is a main theme throughout the museum’s exhibits. “We’re interested in exploring what of her writing is still relevant today,” Attewell says. Because of her work on army medical reform, she was asked to contribute to a study of the problems of health in India. British troops on the subcontinent had the highest mortality rates of all–in 1859 the death rate was 69 per thousand, as opposed to 17 per thousand in England. Through statistics and endless study, (compiled, amazingly, without ever visiting India) she discovered what no one else had noticed: that the English way of life could simply not be transferred to a hot climate. Her 23-page treatise on conditions in India (as compared with the government’s 2,028 pages of small print) was printed at her own expense and sent to anyone with influence, including Queen Victoria.

Once again, Nightingale revealed what no one even wanted to consider: that terrible living and working conditions were killing British troops as they had in the Crimea. Yet again she emphasized that improving the health of British troops would require improving sanitary standards as a whole. For four years Nightingale worked daily on the meticulous paperwork and statistics required to reform life in India. Her influence went beyond paperwork. Newly assigned viceroys to India visited her home for briefings before setting out for their new post. In 1896, Nightingale “retired to her bed”, but, far from slowing down, she continued working on home health visiting, as the English call public health. “Her writing is extraordinarily relevant to today’s health visiting,” Attewell says. In an attempt to find out just how pertinent her writing is to the health profession today, the museum sent out questionnaires to 700 public health supervisors around the country. More than half came back almost immediately. “Usually you’d think a 10 per cent response would be good,” Attewell says.

“I think the interest we’ve got in the questionnaire shows there’s still extraordinary interest in her writing.” Yet more evidence of the timeless value in the work and wisdom of this remarkable woman. Copyright 2014 British Heritage. Florence Nightingale Facts Florence Nightingale Facts Florence Nightingale Facts Florence Nightingale was a nurse who became famous for her work during the Crimean War (1853 - 1856) caring for the wounded soldiers in a British hospital in Scutari, and for changing hospital management and the nursing profession forever. She was born May 12th, 1820 in Florence, Italy, to William Edward Nightingale and Frances Nightingale, wealthy British heirs. In 1821 the family moved back to England and Florence was raised in Hampshire and Derbyshire in the family homes. By the time she was 16, Florence had already determined that her calling was to be a nurse, despite the low wages and lack of respect for the profession. Florence went on to become the most famous nurse in history, changing the way hospitals were run and changing the attitude towards the nursing profession.

Interesting Florence Nightingale Facts: Florence Nightingale was named after the city she was born in - Florence, Italy. At 17 Florence refused a marriage proposal by an upper class gentleman. It was expected that Florence would marry someone of high social class, but she chose to pursue nursing, against her parent's wishes. Florence Nightingale enrolled in nursing school at the Lutheran Hospital of Pastor Fliedner, in Germany in 1850. In 1853 Florence Nightingale was hired to run a small hospital in London. She was only 33 when she was hired for the job. In 1854 the Crimean War began to take its toll on troops and British troops were dying because of lack of supplies and doctors and nurses. In November, 1854, Florence Nightingale and a group of 38 other nurses she had organized arrived in Scutari (Istanbul, Turkey), at the request of her friend Sidney Herbert, a government official. When Florence arrived at the hospital in Scutari the conditions were appalling, with rats and fleas and a very dirty, unsanitary environment. Florence organized the other nurses and changed the conditions of the hospital.

The hospital was properly sanitized and soldiers were properly cared for, with clean bandages and sheets, and were properly fed. Soldiers began to refer to Florence Nightingale as ‘the lady with the lamp' because she was often seen at night walking around at night with her lamp to check on the patients. Florence Nightingale's efforts began to become known. When she returned to England at the end of the Crimean War in 1856, Florence was a national heroine. Many of Florence Nightingale's admirers sent her letters to thank her for her work in Scutari. She received thousands of letters from people she didn't know. In 1859 Florence Nightingale wrote Notes on Nursing - a book about caring for patients. Florence believed that nurses should have a proper education and founded the Nightingale Training School in 1860 at St. Thomas' Hospital in London, England. Florence continued to champion nursing, writing letters, giving advice, and helping to improve the attitude about the profession. Queen Victoria awarded Florence Nightingale the Royal Red Cross in 1883. In 1907 Florence Nightingale was awarded the order of Merit.

She was the first woman to receive the award. Florence Nightingale died on August 13th, 1910, at the age of 90, in London. Many monuments and even a museum have been dedicated to Florence Nightingale for her work to help the sick by improving hospital care and nursing. Related Links: Florence Nightingale | History of Nursing May 12, 1820 – August 13, 1910 Italy, Great Britain, Crimea, Russia Florence Nightingale was a famous English woman who changed history through her pioneering efforts in the areas of nursing, mathematics/statistics and the recognition of professional women. Florence Nightingale was born of wealthy parents in the Italian city of Florence on May 12, 1820. She became a very personable, witty and confident person. Florence led an exciting and privileged life, playing with rich friends and visiting many interesting places. A significant consequence of being a child of wealthy parents was the ability of Florence to receive an advanced education. During the Victorian times of the 1800s, few ordinary people had access to higher education.

Moreover, most women had very little education and highly educated women were extremely rare. William Nightingale, Florence’s father was determined that his daughters would receive an education equal to and better than that of the smartest and richest people around. Florence and her sister, Parthenope, were taught to speak Italian, Latin and Greek, along with their native English. They learned history, geography and mathematics. Florence developed a keen interest in mathematics and displayed an unusual gift of understanding complex mathematical problems and concepts. She received special tutoring from James Sylvester, a renowned mathematician and scientist. At the young age of 16, Florence believed that she heard God’s voice urging her to do something special to help others. As she grew older, she began to take an interest in how sick people were cared for and how they regained their health. In her home town of Romney, Hampshire, she talked with many people in the surrounding area about how they worked to help the sick. She became obsessed with learning more about healthcare. Florence Nightingale and Nursing In her twenties, Florence decided that she would become a nurse and fulfill her intense desire to help the sick. Her parents were greatly surprised and upset that Florence wished to be a nurse.

In the time of Florence’s life, nursing was not considered an important or prestigious profession and one that was usually performed by poor men and women. Despite her parent’s opposition, Florence and some of her friends attended nursing school at the world famous German hospital in Kaiserwerth. Florence returned home to England a proud and successfully trained nurse. Ironically, her first major nursing job was to care for her parents and sister, who all became ill during the years of 1851-1853. In 1853 Florence obtained a position of managing a small private hospital in London. During the year of 1854 Florence kept busy helping sick and suffering people affected by a major outbreak of cholera that spread throughout the London area and beyond. Crimean War A major turning event in Florence’s life happened in 1854. War broke out with the British, French and Ottoman Turks fighting against the Russian Empire. This war became known as the Crimean War as a result of much of the fighting occurred on the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea. Fighting during the war was more brutal than anyone expected and casualties quickly mounted. British troops were dying due to a lack of doctors, nurses, healthcare workers and medical supplies.

A family friend of Florence and a British government official, Sidney Herbert, approached her and asked if she could organize a group of nurses and other healthcare workers and travel to the Crimea to give aid to the desperate, wounded soldiers. Florence and her group of 38 volunteer nurses arrived in Scutari, an area in the Turkish capital of Constantinople, on November 4, 1854. This area contained the main British hospital. Florence was horrified to observe the poor conditions of the hospital. The hospital was filthy; plumbing and sewer drainage was blocked and rats and fleas were everywhere. In addition to quickly helping the wounded soldiers, Florence worked feverishly to improve the overall condition of the hospital and surrounding support buildings in the Scutari area. She virtually took over the operation of the hospital and had sewer and water systems fixed and purified, insured a supply of clean bandages, bedding and other supplies and instituted a strict nursing timetable to insure that the soldiers were cared for and attended to on a regular basis to improve recovery. Florence became very popular with the wounded and sick soldiers. She was affectionately referred to as the “Lady with the Lamp”, due to her nightly routines of checking the patients well being.

Data Collection and Record Keeping Florence completely revamped and modernized the entire healthcare delivery and sanitation systems of the British hospital system in Scutari and beyond. Florence used her immense talent in mathematics to pioneer new techniques of statistical data collection, analysis and display/delivery to help improve the poor medical care and unsanitary conditions of the established healthcare system. Florence implemented many innovative records keeping and impact analysis systems based on pioneering statistical techniques. She developed the Polar-Area Diagram to identify, plot and display the needless deaths of soldiers caused by the lack of ongoing, dedicated care, lack of sufficient food and unsanitary conditions. Florence proved that statistics provided a superior means of learning the overall status of healthcare delivery and such data collection and analysis led to improved medical and surgical delivery. Her innovative Model Hospital Statistical Form helped hospitals to better collect and generate consistent healthcare maintenance data for use in improving healthcare delivery. Florence returned to England in 1856 when the Crimean War ended. She was considered a national heroine and celebrated throughout the land. She received thousands of congratulatory letters and there were even Florence Nightingale ornaments sold throughout Great Britain in celebration.

Anxious to learn more about her experience and new ideas, Queen Victoria met with Florence in Balmoral, Scotland to obtain Florence’s advice on how military hospitals could be improved throughout the British Empire. Florence published Notes on Matters Affecting the Health, Efficiency and Hospital Administration of the British Army (1857) and Notes on Nursing/Hospitals (1859), which described her experience and innovative ideas on caring for the sick. Convinced that all nurses should have superior training as she and few others had, Florence instituted the Nightingale Training School for Nurses at St. Thomas’s Hospital in London in 1860. Graduates of her school were called Nightingale Nurses. With her books, public appearances and the spread of Nightingale Nurses, Florence’s healthcare reforms and innovative practices spread throughout the world. Florence even gave advice to American nurses and healthcare workers during the American Civil War of 1861-1865. Awards and Recognition Florence became a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society in 1858 and was made an honorary member of the American Statistical Association in 1874.

She received the Royal Red Cross from Queen Victoria in 1907 and later that year she received the Order of Merit from King Edward VII, the first ever given to a woman. Florence Nightingale lived to a ripe old age of 90 and died August 13, 1910. She is buried in a Hampshire churchyard in England. Despite her worldwide fame, she has a simple tombstone which lists only the initials of her name and the years she was born and died. Truly one of history’s most remarkable women, virtually all of us have experienced or will experience superior healthcare in our time of need due to the efforts and foresight of Florence Nightingale. Florence Nightingale and the Crimean War | Understanding Uncertainty Florence Nightingale and the Crimean War Submitted by ims25 on Tue, 07/10/2008 - 5:06pm On 28 March 1854 Britain and France declared war on Russia, and for the next two years British, French, Sardinian, and Turkish troops fought against Russians in the Crimean War.

The loss of life in the war was colossal; of 1 650 000 soldiers who began the war (of all nations), 900 000 died. The majority of those who perished did not die from wounds; rather they died from diseases brought about by the terrible living conditions which they suffered. In these notes we review the Crimean War, and the role Florence Nightingale had in highlighting the plight of the soldiers. Siege of Sevastopol Background to the war The Ottoman Empire (1293-1922) was a realm centred on Turkey, which, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, spanned thousands of miles into Africa, Asia, and Europe. The empire declined in the nineteenth century, and as it shrank there was conflict over control of the territory. The Holy Land (modern day Israel) was a region in the Ottoman Empire that had a long history of power struggles. In the 1850s France and Russia vied for authority of the Holy Land, each trying to force their will on the Ottomans who occupied the territory.

Their disagreement escalated, and as the threat of Russian interference in the whole Ottoman Empire increased, Britain, Austria, and Prussia became involved to try to maintain stability of the empire. Initial peaceful negotiations failed, and the British and French sided with the Turkish Ottomans in war against the Russians. Major events of the war Most of the conflict in the Crimean War occurred on the Crimean Peninsula, which lies on the southern tip of Ukraine, and projects into the Black Sea. The Crimea was an important military position for the Russians, because their naval fleet could access the Mediterranean Sea from the region. Several of the more significant battles in the Crimean War are described below. The Battle of the Alma (20 September 1854). In the first battle of the Crimean War, British and French forces clashed with Russian forces near the River Alma in the Crimea. The Russians were defeated. Siege of Sevastopol (25 September 1854 to 8 September 1855). Sevastopol is a city in the south of the Crimea, and it was the home of a major fleet of Russian ships.

The British, French, and Turkish troops besieged the city for one year before finally capturing it on the 9 September 1855. The Battle of Balaclava (25 October 1854). The Battle of Balaclava is now remembered for the calamitous Charge of the Light Brigade which saw British cavalry charge needlessly to their doom under the muddled and misinformed orders of their superiors. Much of the fame of this futile advance is due to a poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson entitled 'The Charge of the Light Brigade', which describes the bravery of the cavalry under incompetent command. The Battle of Balaclava involved British, French, Turkish, and Russian armies. It finished inconclusively, although the Russians suffered heavier losses. The Battle of Eupatoria (17 February 1855). A large Russian force attacked the town of Eupatoria in the Crimea, which was occupied by the Turks. The Russians were repelled. The Sea of Azov naval campaign (25 May 1855 to 22 November 1855).

British and French war ships attacked Russian ports from the Sea of Azov during a six month period in 1855. The object of these attacks was to intercept Russian communications and supplies. The war ships bombarded the Russian towns repeatedly, but they were met with stubborn resistance, and attempts to land and overthrow the port towns were quashed. Map of Crimea with locations of battles marked. The close of the war The war concluded in February 1856. The Ottoman and Russian Empires agreed to halt military activity on the Black Sea, and all nations agreed to respect the autonomy of the Ottoman Empire. The peace treaty was not to last long though. The balance of power and partnership in Europe was in a state of constant flux. Old alliances failed, new alliances were formed, and by the 1870s the treaty had been abandoned. Florence Nightingale's role in the war Those British troops wounded from fighting on the Crimean Peninsula were shipped across the Black Sea to medical stations in Turkey. These stations were poorly staffed, with insufficient supplies, and the medical and sanitary conditions were awful. This terrible state of affairs was reported by the media in Britain.

Thirty eight voluntary nurses, amongst them Florence Nightingale, travelled to Turkey to help relieve the situation. Nightingale proved herself to be hugely resourceful. Her competence and generosity were reported back in Great Britain. The Times Newspaper described her deeds in the following excerpt. She is a 'ministering angel' without any exaggeration in these hospitals, and as her slender form glides quietly along each corridor, every poor fellow's face softens with gratitude at the sight of her. When all the medical officers have retired for the night and silence and darkness have settled down upon those miles of prostrate sick, she may be observed alone, with a little lamp in her hand, making her solitary rounds. Nightingale became known as 'The Lady with the Lamp' after these words were published in the Times. Florence Nightingale Diseases such as typhus, typhoid, cholera, and dysentery were rife in the army hospitals. Many more soldiers were dying from diseases than from wounds. Nightingale worked towards improvements in sanitation, nutrition, and activity for the patients of the hospitals. Death rates were reduced dramatically with the introduction of such measures.

Nightingale kept meticulous records of the number of deaths, and the causes of deaths, so that on her return to Great Britain she could justify the need for improving conditions in hospitals. Following Nightingale's return to Great Britain and her campaign for better living conditions for the army, the Royal Commission on the Health of the Army was created. Nightingale prepared an 800 page report for the commission on the welfare of the army. She advocated the use of statistics as a tool in decision making. Nightingale created graphs to demonstrate that more soldiers died in the Crimean War from disease than from wounds. Many of these graphs were of a particular flower like type, and are now described as coxcombs. Levels: Florence Nightingale - British Nurse Reformed Medical Care Florence Nightingale British Nurse Brought Important Innovations to Medicine Florence Nightingale depicted in a Crimean War hospital. Getty Images By Robert McNamara Florence Nightingale achieved great fame in the mid-1800s as "The Lady With the Lamp" after her service as a nurse in the Crimean War . Though she spent much of her life housebound with illness, she campaigned for reforms in nursing and was a vocal proponent of sanitation practices.

The British Army adopted many of her proposals, and her ideas eventually became standard practices throughout the world. Simple sanitary practices, such as hand washing, were promoted by Nightingale and became commonplace in modern society. And her name practically became synonymous with nursing. Early Life Born in Italy to wealthy British parents on May 12, 1820, Florence Nightingale seemed destined to a life of privilege. Her parents, who owned an estate in England, were fixtures of society. Young Florence rebelled against the life of her family, and became determined to serve society. She developed an ambition to work in hospitals. Her family was horrified, as nursing, in the early 1800s, was not considered a respectable profession. continue reading below our video Test Your General Science Knowledge Florence stubbornly clung to her wishes, worked as a private nurse, and attended a nursing school in Germany. Crimean War Service In 1853, Florence Nightingale became the director of a small charitable hospital in London. It gave her a chance to use not only her nurse's training but her ability at organization and administration.

When Britain went to war against Russia, Nightingale, through the intercession of a British official she knew, was invited to travel to the Crimea. She brought along 38 nurses. In November 1854 Nightingale and her party arrived in Constantinople, and discovered appalling conditions at the British Army hospital at Scutari. "The Lady With the Lamp" In the Crimea, Nightingale was able to get officers to accept her and her band of nurses. However, the prevailing attitude of the time was that common soldiers were of lower classes and did not deserve comfort or proper medical attention. Nightingale struggled to change that archaic attitude, and with funds raised through a campaign with the London Times, she was able to provide medical supplies to the wounded troops. She soon became legendary as a compassionate nurse, and was dubbed "The Lady With the Lamp." While she did do some nursing, her real contributions were organizational. Quietly Exerted Power After the Crimean War , Nightingale returned to Britain. While she was now considered a national hero, she rejected the accolades and preferred to work behind the scenes.

She wrote pamphlets and books urging reforms in the way the British military treated sick and wounded soldiers, and she even lobbied Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Nightingale set up a school for nurses, and also campaigned for reforms in sanitation as a way of stopping the spread of disease. Illness and a Reclusive Life The time spent near the front during the Crimean War took a physical toll, and Nightingale's health declined in the late 1850s. By 1861 she seldom left her room, though she continued to write and issue statements and reports. Despite her withdrawal from public life, her ideas about sanitation in British India gained currency. And her book Notes on Nursing greatly influenced the emerging nursing profession. She continued to write and influence policies, and despite her chronic illness, she lived to the age of 90. She died on August 13, 1910. Miss Nightingale Dies, Aged Ninety Miss Nightingale Dies, Aged Ninety By THE NEW YORK TIMES LONDON, Aug.

14.--Florence Nightingale, the famous nurse of the Crimean war, and the only woman who ever received the Order of Merit, died yesterday afternoon at her London home. Although she had been an invalid for a long time, rarely leaving her room, where she passed the time in a half-recumbent position, and was under the constant care of a physician, her death was somewhat unexpected. A week ago she was quite sick, but then improved, and on Friday was cheerful. During that night alarming symptoms developed, and she gradually sank until 2 o'clock Saturday afternoon, when the end came. During recent years, owning to her feebleness and advanced age, Miss Nightingale had received but few visitors. On May 12 last she celebrated her ninetieth birthday, and was the recipient of a congratulatory message from King George. Her wishes were that her funeral should be as quiet as possible, and though there is a strong feeling among the general public and among military men in favor of a public funeral, there is little doubt that her expressed desire in this connection will be taken into consideration.

Not even the death of a royal personage could have called forth more universal expressions of regret and tributes of love and affection than appear in the English papers. Miss Nightingale's Career "The Queen of Nurses" and "The Soldier's Friend" are titles which have stuck to Florence Nightingale since her memorable service in behalf of the wounded and dying in the Crimean war. Though Miss Nightingale was 90 years old last May, and although she had been an invalid ever since she returned from the Levant in the stirring times following the heroic struggle of the British in the Russian Empire, she retained her mental faculties to the last. The last honor to be conferred upon her by a grateful country was in 1908, when the freedom of the City of London was bestowed upon her. The ceremony took place in the Guildhall, in the presence of thousands of people, including many nurses and doctors. Miss Nightingale, then in her eighty-eighth year, was too infirm to attend, and was represented by her nephew. Before that, in December, 1907, she received from King Edward the English Order of Merit.

The statutes had to be modified by the King in order to admit of her appointment and Queen Alexandra's own birthday was selected as the most suitable date for the bestowal of the honor. Florence Nightingale, the daughter of William Shore Nightingale, a wealthy English landowner in Florence, Italy, was born in that city in 1820 and from that city she took her given name. When a mere child she returned with her parents to England where she lived on her father's estate of Lea Hurst, Derbyshire. She was highly educated, being thoroughly at home in the French, German, and Italian languages. Her inclination toward philanthropy manifested itself early in life and she did much for the poor neighbors around her English home. She began her life work by entering as a pupil in the Lutheran Hospital of Pastor Fliedner at Kaiserwerth, near Dusseldorf-on-the-Rhine. Here she acquitted herself in such a manner as to draw the highest praise from her teacher. In the early fifties she returned to London and devoted herself to labor in a hospital for sick governesses, where her health succumbed to the severity of her tasks.

She had hardly recovered from the strain of this work when the greatest undertaking of her life was thrust upon her. The Crimean war had opened. England was engaged in the formidable task of trying to clip the claws of the Russian bear. Thousands of Englishmen were sent away to the Black Sea, where the rigors of Winter on that iron coast were such that, although the army never penetrated the country more than a day's march from the sea, the campaign almost failed through the breakdown of the chain of commissariat supplies, while in 1854 there were 18,000 men in the military hospitals. Her Work in the Crimea In the first stage of the Crimean not a woman nurse was employed in any of the military hospitals, for the class of women who had in the past been employed was so notoriously bad that the War Office decided not to send out any women nurses to the Crimea. After the battle of the Alma, however, the country rang with indignation at the neglected condition of the sick and wounded soldiers. Stirred into action, Sir Sydney Herbert, Secretary of War, wrote to Miss Nightingale saying that she was the one woman to take charge of the organization of a corps of nurses.

He offered her absolute authority in this department. Strangely enough, on the same day Miss Nightingale wrote offering her services. A few days later she sailed for the Crimea with thirty-four nurses, and the Government congratulated the country on having obtained her services. The women arrived just after the battle of Inkerman had been fought. There were 4,000 men in the hospitals, some wounded, but most of them sick. There are, of course, very few veterans of the war of the Crimea still alive, yet there have been in late years some who remembered the sweet and sympathetic face of Florence Nightingale, and who were never tired of telling about her noble work in the hospitals. It was not only in the details of nursing, but in the gentle and watchful care for his comfort that Miss Nightingale made herself a beautiful memory to the soldier. She lent her aid to the surgeons when strong men turned away in horror, and sustained the courage of the wounded by her appeals to the ties which bound them to home. Nor was it in the hospitals alone that her unselfish energy and untiring devotion were felt.

There was an invalids' kitchen, where appetizing food for the sick who could not eat ordinary fare was provided under Miss Nightingale's eye. She provided also laundries, where clean linen could be obtained. In company with the army Chaplains she established a library and a school room, where she had evening lectures to amuse the convalescents. She personally attended to the correspondence of the wounded, and in many ways fully earned the title conferred upon her by the soldiers--"The Angels of the Crimea." For a year and a half she labored in this field until her work there was no longer necessary. In August, 1856, she returned to Lea Hurst. A grateful country would have welcomed her royally, but she had no desire for public praise and shrank from his every manifestation. She arrived when she was least expected and eluded those who would have honored her. The Queen, however, was not to be denied. She sent for Miss Nightingale to visit her at Balmoral and decorated her with her own hand. The Sultan of Turkey made her a valuable present.

The English Government on behalf of the people was very practical in its expression of appreciation, and presented her with $250,000. Endows St. Thomas's Hospital She made herself still more popular by refusing to keep the money for her own needs, turning it over for the establishment of St. Thomas's Hospital. In this is the Nightingale Training School for Nurses. In recent years Miss Nightingale has been unable to give her personal attention to the school, but it was and still is conducted on the plan she devised. Ms. Nightingale at this time was the heroine of the hour. Poems were written in her honor, songs and pianoforte pieces were dedicated to the "good angel of Derbyshire," playbills displayed her name beside that of Hamlet, grocers put her portrait on their bags as an advertisement, street minstrels found a Nightingale ditty a remunerative attraction, broadsheet ballads on "The Nightingale" were the fashion on Seven Dials, and young ladies in ringlets and spencers played the "Nightingale Varsoviana" in drawing-room circles.

Some of the young women who entered the training school which Miss Nightingale founded were of the best social standing, moved to emulate Miss Nightingale's example. The probationers, or nurse pupils, are required to remain three years before they can become Protestant sisters. After this term of probation they usually know whether they have found their proper vocation. Although Miss Nightingale's health was never robust after her Crimean experience, nevertheless she contrived to write much that was of value. Her "Hospital Notes" have been remarkably successful, and her "Notes on Nursing" have had a circulation reaching into the hundreds of thousands. She has written many more papers and reports, some for publication, some for the information of her Government. During the American civil war she was constantly consulted as to the management of field hospitals and great good came of her advice. In recent years Miss Nightingale has led a quiet life, the condition of her health not permitting activity. Hundreds of persons have constantly expressed a desire to visit her, but she was able to receive only a few. She had, however, as distinguished a company of sympathetic correspondents as any woman in Europe.

She was a personal friend of Lord Napier, of the Duke of Cambridge, and of Lord Wolseley. Both Queen Victoria and Queen Alexandra were in the habit of sending regularly to her home to inquire about her health. In her youth Miss Nightingale had a great desire to study medicine, but then the profession was closed to women. The injustice of the exclusion ranged her on the side of those who later started the propaganda for opening the professions to women. She has also been a lifelong exponent of woman's suffrage. In 1890 England formally celebrated the great nurse's birthday. There were meetings and speeches at various towns, and the Prince of Wales presided at the ceremonies at the Training School for Nurses. The chorus of praise which reached her ears as she sat in her invalid's chair at the completion of threescore years and ten was such as few women have enjoyed in the history of the world. Perhaps the greatest good that has resulted from her noble life has been the setting in motion of a force which has led thousands of women to devote themselves to systematic care of the sick and wounded.

BBC - iWonder - Florence Nightingale: Saving lives with statistics Florence Nightingale: Saving lives with statistics 1820 Consultant Mark Bostridge Nightingale biographer Busting the myth Florence Nightingale was so much more than a lady with a lamp. The legend of the saintly nurse has long obscured the truth – that her mathematical genius was what really saved so many lives. Her ambition led her into the hellish world of Crimean warfare and, as a result, on a journey that would transform nursing and hospitals in Britain. 1820 Mary Evans Florence Nightingale's home in Derbyshire. Florence was named after the Italian city of her birth. She grew up on picturesque English country estates with her elder sister, Parthenope. Her upper middle class upbringing included an extensive home education from Florence’s father, who taught his daughters classics, philosophy and modern languages. Florence excelled in mathematics and science. Her love of recording and organising information was clear from an early age – she documented her extensive shell collection with precisely drawn tables and lists. She has taken to mathematics… she is deep in them and working very hard.

Parthenope Nightingale on her sister's studying habits, 1840 1837 Getty Young Florence Nightingale. The Nightingales took their daughters on a tour of Europe, a custom intended to educate and refine gentlewomen in the 19th century. But Florence's unconventional character continued to develop, as entries from her diary of the trip show. She recorded detailed notes of population statistics, hospitals and other charitable institutions. In spite of her mother's disapproval, she later received further tuition in mathematics. Yet her biggest rebellion was still to come. In 1837, she became convinced God had 'called' her to his service but her parents were horrified when she revealed what she thought the service should be... God spoke to me and called me to His Service. What form this service was to take the voice did not say. Florence Nightingale Getty Portrait of Florence (left) and her sister Parthenope. Florence was an eligible young woman – intelligent, striking and wealthy. Proposals were sure to come her way, but Florence had a proposal of her own. Her family expected her to marry well but the prospect of a life of domesticity left Florence cold.

By 1844, she had decided nursing was her calling. She proposed training in Salisbury, but her parents refused. They thought nursing was lowly, immodest work done by the poor or servants, completely unsuitable for a woman of Florence’s social standing. Florence, however, persevered. In 1849, after a long courtship, she even declined a proposal of marriage, believing her destiny lay outside wedlock. I do not expect that love passages will be frequent in her life. Florence's mother, writing about Florence in 1838 Around this time… Getty Photograph of Florence Nightingale. Nothing could sway Florence from her mission to nurse. She defied her parents' wishes and continued to visit hospitals in Paris, Rome and London. In 1850, realising his daughter was unlikely to marry, Florence’s father finally relented and allowed her to train as a nurse in Germany. Parthenope struggled to accept her sister’s hard-won independence and suffered a nervous breakdown in 1852. This forced Florence to return and care for her. But in August 1853, the breakthrough finally came: Florence became superintendent at a women's hospital in Harley Street.

After nearly a decade, she had realised her ambition of becoming a nurse. Mary Evans Florence receiving a wounded soldier at the British hospital in Scutari. The Crimean War broke out in 1853. Newspaper reports from the front line told horror stories of the appalling conditions in British army hospitals. Sidney Herbert, Secretary of State at War, knew Florence well. He appointed her to take 38 nurses to the military hospital in Scutari, Turkey. It was the first time women had been allowed to officially serve in the army. When she arrived, the Barrack Hospital was filthy – the floor was an inch thick with faeces. She set her nurses to work cleaning the hospital and ensured soldiers were properly fed and clothed. The regular troops were, for the first time, being treated with decency and respect. Getty Florence also inspected and reformed front-line hospitals in Crimea in 1855-6. Florence’s best efforts to combat the rising death toll failed. It kept increasing relentlessly, with over four thousand deaths in a single winter. Although she had made the hospital more efficient, it was no less deadly.

In the spring of 1855, the British government sent out a Sanitary Commission to investigate the conditions at Scutari. It discovered the Barrack Hospital was built on a sewer, meaning patients were drinking contaminated water. The hospital, along with other British army hospitals, was flushed out and ventilation improved. Consequently, the death rate began to fall. It would be a brave man that dare insult her…I would not give a penny for his Chance… A British soldier, writing about Florence in a letter home from Scutari 1855 The lady of the lamp hits the big time Getty The iconic 'Lady of the Lamp' portrait featured in the Illustrated London News on Feb 24 1855. When a portrait of Florence carrying a lamp and tending to patients appeared in the press, she quickly gained an army of die-hard Florence fans. Her work in Scutari improving the living conditions of soldiers in hospitals was hailed by both the press and the public. Her family had to wade through a steady stream of poems posted to Florence – the Victorian equivalent of fan mail – and images of 'the lady of the lamp' were printed on bags, mats and souvenirs. But Florence was wary of her celebrity.

Although she returned home a heroine, she kept a low profile by travelling under a pseudonym – Miss Smith. My lads, may your hearts never fail/ You are cheer’d by the presence of a sweet Nightingale! From the song The Nightingale in the East, 1855 1857 Florence reveals the truth You need to have JavaScript enabled to view this clip. Professor Marcus Du Sautoy explains the rose diagram. Clip from The Beauty of Diagrams (BBC Four, 2010). Image: Florence Nightingale Museum/Bridgeman. Florence knew her talent for statistics wouldn't be enough to ensure her report hit home. It was time to prove her mastery of communication as well. Rather than lists or tables, she represented the death toll in a revolutionary way. Her ‘rose diagram’ showed a sharp decrease in fatalities following the work of the Sanitary Commission – it fell by 99% in a single year. The diagram was so easy to understand it was widely republished and the public understood the army’s failings and the urgent need for change. In light of Florence’s work, new army medical, sanitary science and statistics departments were established to improve healthcare.

It should affect through the eyes what we fail to convey to the brains of the public through their word-proof ears. Florence Nightingale on the Rose Diagram 1859 Every nurse ought to be careful to wash her hands very frequently during the day. If her face, too, so much the better. Florence Nightingale's Notes on Nursing, 1859 1880 Florence takes the fight to India Getty Florence Nightingale photographed in 1885. Florence had been involved in improving the health of the British army in India since her experiences in Scutari. By the 1880s, scientific knowledge had advanced to further support her reforming ideas. Like many medical practitioners, she now accepted germ theory, and so emphasised the need for uncontaminated water supplies for people in India. Still collecting data, she campaigned for famine relief and improved sanitary conditions to combat a high death toll that she believed was caused by conditions akin to those she’d witnessed in Scutari. Florence received reports from India until 1906.

Question: Florence Nightingale became famous in which war?
Answer: The Crimean War