Essays on Florence Nightingale

Florence Nightingale was born on May 12, 1820, in Florence, Italy. Nightingale’s affluent British family belonged to elite social circles. From a very young age, Florence Nightingale was active in philanthropy. By the time she was 16 years old, she decided to be a nurse.

In 1844, Nightingale enrolled as a nursing student at the Lutheran Hospital of Pastor Fliedner in Kaiserwerth, Germany. In the early 1850s, she took a nursing job in a Middlesex hospital for ailing governesses. She wanted to improve hygiene practices, significantly lowering the death rate at the hospital in the process.

In October of 1853, the Crimean War started. On 21 October 1854, she and the staff of 38 women volunteer nurses were sent to the Ottoman Empire. During that time, she was called “the Lady with the Lamp” and “the Angel of the Crimea.” Her work reduced the hospital’s death rate by two-thirds. The Queen rewarded Nightingale’s work by presenting her with an engraved brooch and by granting her a prize of $250,000 from the British government.

Nightingale decided to use the money to further her cause. In 1860, she funded the establishment of St. Thomas’ Hospital, and the Nightingale Training School for Nurses.

She died at Saturday, August 13, 1910, at her home in London. The "Lady with the Lamp" was laid to rest at St. Margaret's Church, East Wellow, in Hampshire, England.

"I attribute my success to this:—I never gave or took an excuse."
"I am of certain convinced that the greatest heroes are those who do their duty in the daily grind of domestic affairs whilst the world whirls as a maddening dreidel."