Florence Nightingale

In 1820, the mother of nursing, Florence Nightingale was born into the wealthy family of William Nightingale and Fanny Nightingale. She was baptized in the Church of England and as a teenager she would write in her diary about how Jesus Christ called her to His service. At the age of 25, Florence told her parents she wanted to become a nurse. Her parents didn’t agree with her decision because nursing had a reputation of being associated with alcoholism and prostitution. Even though her parents didn’t agree with her decision, Florence kept serving Jesus and became a Nursing Superintendent in London in 1853.

Florence Nightingale is known most for helping wounded British soldiers in the Crimean War. To these soldiers, she was known as ‘The Lady with the Lamp’. Nightingale, along with 38 other nurses, took care and tried to cure the soldiers’ wounds, but this became hard to do because the condition of the hospital was dreadful. She fought to get better conditions for the soldiers since there were no medicine supplies, no furniture, no operating tables, and very few beds. She suggested that if there was better sanitation in the hospital, there would be fewer deaths due to infections and preventable diseases. Florence Nightingale laid in peace in 1910at the age of 90 but left many contributions toward the nursing field.