Florence nightingale family

The legacy of Florence Nightingale, the first professional nurse

Nightingale went on to support the foundation of the British Red Cross in 1870 and gave advice on nursing and running hospitals. She was also a member of the young organisation’s Ladies’ Committee.

Florence Nightingale's name still means care, bravery, and kindness

Florence Nightingale died in 1910 at the age of 90. Since then she has become a symbol of compassion and care throughout the world. Her important role in founding the modern nursing profession has made her a globally revered figure even 100 years after her death, as is her legacy of kindness and commitment to patient care.

“Perhaps the greatest good that has resulted from her noble life has been the setting in motion of a force which has led thousands of women to devote themselves to systematic care of the sick and wounded." The New York Times obituary, 14 August 1910 

Following her death, her work and legacy have continued to be remembered. In 1912, the International Committee of the Red Cross instituted the Florence Nightingale M

About Florence Nightingale

Famous for being the ‘Lady with the Lamp’ who organised the nursing of sick and wounded soldiers during the Crimean War, Florence Nightingale’s far-sighted ideas and reforms have influenced the very nature of modern healthcare.

Her greatest achievement was to transform nursing into a respectable profession for women and in 1860, she established the first professional training school for nurses, the Nightingale Training School at St Thomas’ Hospital.

She campaigned tirelessly to improve health standards, publishing over 200 books, reports and pamphlets on hospital planning and organisation which are still widely read and respected today, including her most famous work ‘Notes on Nursing: What It Is and What It Is Not’.

Florence’s influence on today’s nursing ranges from her ward designs (known as Nightingale Wards), which were developed in response to her realisation that hospital buildings themselves could affect the health and recovery of patients, through to pioneering infection control measures and the championing of a healthy die



Biography

Florence Nightingale is best remembered for her work as a nurse during the Crimean War and her contribution towards the reform of the sanitary conditions in military field hospitals. However, what is less well known about this amazing woman is her love of mathematics, especially statistics, and how this love played an important part in her life's work.

Named after the city of her birth, Nightingale was born at the Villa Colombia in Florence, Italy, on 12 May 1820. Her parents, William Edward Nightingale and his wife Frances Smith, were touring Europe for the first two years of their marriage. Nightingale's elder sister had been born in Naples the year before. The Nightingales gave their first born the Greek name for the city, which was Parthenope.

William Nightingale had been born with the surname Shore but he had changed it to Nightingale after inheriting from a rich relative, Peter Nightingale of Lea, near Matlock, Derbyshire. The girls grew up in the country spending much of their time at Lea Hurst in Derbyshire. When Nightingale was about five years old he

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