By Fleur Mc -H

1. Florence Nightingale By Fleur Mc-H

2. Introduction • Florence Nightingale was a celebrated social reformer and nurse who is now famous for being the founder of “Modern Nursing “. • She first came to prominence whilst serving as a nurse during the Crimean War were she tended to wounded British soldiers. • She was known as the” Lady of the Lamp” after her habit of making her rounds of the wards at night carrying a small lighted lamp. • In 1860,Florence laid the first foundations of professional nursing with the establishment of her nursing school at St Thomas’ Hospital in London . It was the first secular nursing school in the world , now part of the world famous King’s College London. • Many of the nurses that she trained became Matrons of the top hospital in Britain. • Se was also a n inspiration for nurses in the American civil war and trained Linda Richards, “America’s First Trained Nurse”.

3. Early life • Florence Nightingale was born into a rich upper class English family in Italy • And was named after the city of her birth FLORENCE. Florence’s older sister • Frances Parthenope had similarly been named after Parthenopolis • A Greek settlement now part of the city of Naples. The family moved back to • England in 1821, with Nightingale being brought up in the family’s homes • At Embley Park and Lea Hurst. Nightingale underwent the first of several • experiences that she believed were calls from God in February 1837 while at • Embley Park encouraging her to devote her life to the service of others. Her • family were strongly opposed this and it wasn’t until 1844 when she finally • entered the field of nursing despite the distress of her mother and sister.

4. As a young woman Florence was an attractive woman although she could appear severe, she could also be very charming and her smile was radiant. She had a long time boyfriend called Richard Monkton Miles. He was a poet and they were together for 9 years before she rejected him, believing that marriage would interfere with her nursing career. She rebelled against the expected role for a woman of her status to become a wife and mother. She worked hard to educate herself in the art of science and nursing. • Her greatest contribution came when she was allowed to do her nursing work in the Crimean War when reports got back to Britain of the horrific condition for the wounded there. On 21 October 1854 she and a staff of 38 women volunteer nurses that she had trained including 15 Catholic nuns were sent to the war zone. They were sent to Turkey where they found most of the soldiers were dying from illness and disease rather than their wounds. • She changed the way that the wounded were treated and very quickly it was realised that bad hygiene was a major factor in this and this influenced her later career when she recommended sanitary conditions were imposed on hospitals and treatment centres for the sick.

5. She rebelled against the expected role for a woman of her status to become a wife and mother. She worked hard to educate herself in the art of science and nursing. Her greatest contribution came when she was allowed to do her nursing work in the Crimean War when reports got back to Britain of the horrific condition for the wounded there. On 21 October 1854 she and a staff of 38 women volunteer nurses that she had trained including 15 Catholic nuns were sent to the war zone. They were sent to Turkey where they found most of the soldiers were dying from illness and disease rather than their wounds. She changed the way that the wounded were treated and very quickly it was realised that bad hygiene was a major factor in this and this influenced her later career when she recommended sanitary conditions were imposed on hospitals and treatment centres for the sick.

6. ` • In her later years she was bedridden for a large part of the time but she still did a huge amount of work in the field of hospital planning and her work spread across Britain and the rest of the world. • She was given a huge amount of honours and was the first woman to be awarded the Order of Merit • Her output slowed in her last years due to her increasing blindness and declining mental abilities and she died on 13August 1910 peacefully in her sleep in London.