Famous Victorian Florence Nightingale “Lady with the Lamp” By David Purcell P7K

NAME: Florence Nightingale OCCUPATION: Nurse BIRTH DATE: May 12, 1820 DEATH DATE: Aug 13, 1910 age 90 yrs EDUCATION: Institution of Protestant Deaconesses at Kaiserswerth, Germany PLACE OF BIRTH: Florence, Italy PLACE OF DEATH: London, UK

Florence was the daughter of William and Frances Nightingale. Her father was a wealthy English land owner and banker. After his marriage in 1818 the couple went to live in Italy where Florence was born and named after the Italian city of Florence. Florence had an older sister, Frances Parthenope (known as 'Pop'). When 5 years of age Florence returned home to England and raised on the family estate at Lea Hurst. Florence received a classical education including studies in German, French and Italian. She was a clever child and liked history and maths. From a young age Florence was interested in the well being of ill and poor people and ministered to them in the local village near her home.

By the time Florence was 16 years old she had decided nursing was what she wanted to do and at 17 years of age believed she was called into service by God leading her to refuse a marriage proposal from a suitable gentleman. At first her parents were not pleased and forbade her to pursue nursing. During the Victorian era a young lady of her social position was expected to marry a man of means and not take up a job that was viewed as menial labour. However Florence did not give up and finally in 1844 her father gave his permission and she went to Kaiserwerth in Germany to train as a nurse. In the early 1850’s she returned to London, taking up a post in Middlesex Hospital where within a year, she was promoted to superintendant.

In 1854 Florence was asked by the Secretary of War to organise a corps of nurses to attend to the sick and injured soldiers in Crimea. She quickly gathered a team of 34 nurses and left for Crimea, arriving in November at Scutari, the British base hospital in Constantinople. Conditions were horrid, the hospital was overcrowded and filthy. - not enough beds, men lay on the floor - no proper toilets - no washing facilities for men or laundry - drains were blocked - rats and rodents ran everywhere - more soldiers were dying from infectious diseases than from injuries - food was scarce and of poor quality - there was a shortage of basic supplies such as bandages/soap.

Florence set to work immediately, she: - organised the least sick to help scrub the inside of the hospital - bought fresh food and employed a chef to cook better meals - paid workmen to clear the drains - established a laundry - created a classroom and a library - dramatically improved overall sanitary conditions. At night Florence walked the wards to make sure the men were comfortable. She wrote letters home for men who could not write and she sat with dying soldiers to comfort them. Florence carried a lantern, so the soldiers called her 'The Lady with the Lamp'. Her work reduced the hospital’s death rate by two thirds.

Florence wrote an 830 page report analyzing her experience and proposing reforms for other military hospitals. This led to a restructuring of the War Office's administrative department and the establishment of a Royal Commission for the Health of the Army in She remained at Scutari for a year and a half. On her return home to Lea Hurst she was met with a hero's welcome. The Queen rewarded Florence’s work by presenting her with an engraved brooch that became known as the "Nightingale Jewel" and by granting her a prize of £ from the British government. Florence used the money to fund the establishment of the Nightingale Training School for Nurses in 1860 at St Thomas’s Hospital. She became a figure of public admiration. Poems, songs and plays were written in her honour. Young women aspired to be like her. Even women from the wealthy upper classes started enrolling at the training school. Thanks to her, nursing became viewed as an honourable vocation.

While at Scutari, Florence contracted "Crimean fever" and would never fully recover. By the time she was 38 years old, she was bedridden and remained so for the rest of her life. Fiercely determined, and dedicated to improving health care, she continued her work from her bed. In 1859, she published Notes on Hospitals, which focused on how to properly run civilian hospitals. Throughout the U.S. Civil War, she was frequently consulted about how to best manage field hospitals. Florence also served as an authority on public sanitation issues in India for both the military and civilians,. In 1908, at the age of 88, she was conferred the merit of honour by King Edward. In May of 1910, she received a congratulatory message from King George on her 90th birthday.

In August 1910, Florence Nightingale fell ill, but seemed to recover and was reportedly in good spirits. A week later, on the evening of Friday, August 12, 1910, she developed an array of troubling symptoms. She died unexpectedly at 2 pm the following day, Saturday, August 13, at her home in London. Characteristically, she had expressed the desire that her funeral be a quiet and modest affair, despite the public's desire to honour her. Respecting her last wishes, her relatives turned down a national funeral. The "Lady with the Lamp" was laid to rest in a family plot at Westminster Abbey. The Florence Nightingale Museum, which sits at the site of the original Nightingale Training School for Nurses, houses more than 2,000 artefacts commemorating the life and career of the "Angel of the Crimea." To this day, Florence Nightingale is broadly acknowledged and revered as the pioneer of modern nursing.

The Florence Nightingale Training School has gone through a number of mergers and expansions and is now an academic school within King’s College Hospital London. It is primarily concerned with the education of people to become nurses and midwives. It also carries out research, professional development and postgraduate programmes. My cousin Rachel graduated last summer and is now a nurse in King’s College Hospital, London. It is a very large and busy hospital with 7000 staff. Thank you