Florence Nightingale is one of the nursing reformers.
Her contribution in nursing and in medical disciplines was enormous. Furthermore, her visions deeply
influenced the evolution of nursing practice.
Florence Nightingale was born on May 12, 1820, in Florence, Italy (See Comptons Encyclopedia Online ). During her childhood and teenage years, Nightingale lived in many different places (Derbyshire, Hampshire, and London). Although her father was her main educator in her early stage of life, he disapproved her to attend nursing school. However, she went aboard to study European hospital system in 1849 (see Microsoft Encarta ) and later enrolled in the Year Book of the Institution of Protestant Deaconesses at Kaiserswerth, Germany to train as a nurse.
When Criman War started, Nightingale voluteered herself to serve in the field. She was then appointed as the head of the nurses in the military hospital in Turkey. During her serving in these hospital, she recognized the importance of proper sanitation because many injuried individuals were dying from fever and infection. As a result, she enforced sanitary regulations. Furthermore, she used her own money to bought clean linen, clothes, and food, etc. for the hospital.
After the war, she gained tremendous recognition from the public and from the Queen of England. Even though she received 50000 pounds from England, she used it on establishing the Nightingale School for nurses. Later in her life, she continued to reenforce high professional standards in caring for the sick. In August 13, 1910, she died in London.
