Florence Nightingale
Person Born 12/5/1820 Died 13/8/1910
Categories: Medicine, Seriously Famous
Countries: Crimea, Italy, Turkey
Nurse, statistician, author. Born in Italy (go on, guess which city) while her parents were on the grand tour. Her sister was born one year earlier in Naples, and named Frances Parthenope, the Greek form of 'Naples', of course.
Already a (religious) committed nurse, she heard about the horrific conditions of the soldiers in the Crimean War and went with a staff of 38 other nurses to Scutari, Turkey, 330 miles from the British Camp at Balaklava. The high death rate at Scutari was largely due to unsanitary conditions; 10 soldiers died of diseases to every one that died of battle wounds. This was not improved until the government sent a Sanitary Commission to the hospital, 6 months after Nightingale had arrived. Back in Britain she analysed the figures and understood the importance of sanitary living conditions which she promoted through the rest of her career. She was a pioneer in the use of graphical analysis as a call to action and her report to Parliament contained a very early use of the rose diagram. In 1959 she published 'Notes on Nursing' which was a basis for the formation of the modern nursing profession.
Never married and had a few intense relationships with women. Died at home at 10 South Street, Park Lane and was buried alongside her parents at St Margaret's, East Wellow, near her parent's home, Embley Park in Hampshire. Maternal grandfather was William Smith. The annual International Nurses Day is celebrated on her birthday. There is a museum at St Thomas’ Hospital.
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