Florence Nightingale: The first nurse

Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) was a British nurse, social reformer and statistician. She was the founder of modern nursing. She came from a wealthy background was born in Italy and named after the city of her birth.

As she grew up, she decided that she wanted to help the sick and injured, and wanted to become a nurse. When Florence told her parents they were not happy as in their view, this was not a respectable profession.

Eventually, her father gave his permission for her to go to Germany to train in 1844 in a hospital in Kaiserwerth, Germany. When she returned she became the superintendent of a hospital for gentlewomen in Harley Street, London.

When war broke out in the Crimea in 1854, the government expected it to last several months, it actually lasted 2 years. They were not ready for how many soldiers would be injured, and this was one of the reasons why the hospitals were in such a bad state. A reporter for the Times newspaper sent back several reports about the hospitals, and people in Britain started demanding something was done about them. This was when the Minister for War, Sidney Herbert, stepped in and asked Florence Nightingale to arrange and take charge of nurses to send to the war.

To ensure that the wounded were kept clean and fed well, Florence Nightingale set up laundries to wash linen and clothing and kitchens to cook food. This greatly improved the medical and sanitary arrangements at Scutari reduced the death rate. The work of Florence Nightingale and her nurses set the standards for modern day nursing.

Florence Nightingale has frequently been described as "the lady with the lamp" and this quote relates to an article published about her in The Times newspaper 8th February 1855, which reads:

"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 these miles of prostrate sick, she may be observed alone, with a little lamp in her hand, making her solitary rounds."

It took Florence and her nurses 13 days to reach Scutari, they travelled by ship to Boulogne, then overland to Marseilles where they had a break in the journey. From Marseilles, they took the mail steamer "Vectis" to Scutari.

Other women who nursed during the Crimean war are Mary Seacole and Elizabeth (Betsy) Davis. Both had approached Nightingale to work in her hospital at Scutari, but Seacole was turned down, and Davis was one of a party who were sent to Scutari but was not wanted by Nightingale.

Florence returned after the war as a national heroine. She had been shocked by the conditions in the hospital and began to campaign to improve the quality of nursing in military hospitals. In October 1856 she met with Queen Victoria and Prince Albert and in 1857 she gave evidence to a Sanitary Commission. This helped with the setting up of the Army Medical College.

In 1859, Florence published a book called "Notes on Nursing" which is still in print today. She also founded the Nightingale School & Home for Nurses at St Thomas' Hospital in London in 1860. She had important influence on campaigns to improve healthcare in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Until her death, Nightingale encouraged the development in nursing in Britain and abroad. The main reason we remember her is that she did a lot of work educating people about the importance of keeping hospitals clean and free from infection, and this work is carried on today in modern hospitals.

However, Florence Nightingale should also be remembered for her skills as a statistician and because of this, she became the first female member of the Royal Statistical Society in 1858. She was able explain in diagram form that most of the deaths recorded in army hospitals came from disease, rather than from battle wounds and that disease could be controlled by good nutrition, ventilation, and shelter. Her diagram is now referred to as the "Rose Diagram." It was a real breakthrough for those working with statistics and of course revealed in a very clear way, the absolute importance of good sanitation for the army and society.

Florence Nightingale became the first woman to be awarded the Order of Merit.