Through her sacrificial work, the British Florence Nightingale went down in history. Born in Florence in 1820, the daughter of wealthy parents, she had to fight hard before she could fulfill her lifelong dream. She wanted to help and nurse, but women of good family were condemned to a life in a gilded cage at that time. Finally, her family agreed: she learned the profession of a nurse.
During the Crimean War, when she was the life-saver for thousands of wounded, she got her nickname “The Lady with the Lamp”: At night she walked through the military hospitals with a lamp in her hand. The reform of nursing in England is associated with her name and she was the model of Henry Dunant, the founder of the Red Cross.
Nursing reform
She owes her first name to her birthplace, Florence, and her last name is that of a small bird with a mighty voice, the nightingale.
As a nurse, Florence Nightingale reorganized the care of soldiers during the Crimean War (1853 – 1856) in the face of massive opposition from the medical profession, improving hygienic and medical conditions and thereby lowering the mortality rate from 42 to 2%.
After her return, in 1860, she founded the first nurses’ school in London, where teaching was based on modern standards. Her experiences were published in various textbooks. In 1907, Florence Nightingale became the first woman to receive the “Order of High Merit for the British Empire and Humanity” and was made an honorary citizen of London.
Today, we have the British nurse to thank for the fact that nursing was established as a teaching profession. Florence Nightingale died in 1910 – a heroine in her own lifetime!
