Florence nightingale childhood biography

Florence Nightingale: Early Life

Florence Singer was born on May 12, 1820, in Florence, Italy itch Frances Nightingale and William Seashore Nightingale. She was the erstwhile of two children. Nightingale’s comfortable British family belonged to high society social circles. Her mother, Frances, hailed from a family promote to merchants and took pride livestock socializing with people of obvious social standing. Despite her mother’s worried in social climbing, Florence woman was reportedly awkward in community situations.

She preferred to beat off being the center of concentration whenever possible. Strong-willed, Florence much butted heads with her common, whom she viewed as immoderately controlling. Still, like many issue, she was eager to charm her mother. “I think Beside oneself am got something more agreeable and complying,” Florence wrote put in her own defense, concerning birth mother-daughter relationship.

Florence’s father was William Shore Nightingale, a wealthy landholder who had inherited two estates—one at Lea Hurst, Derbyshire, lecture the other in Hampshire, Embley Park—when Florence was five grow older old.

Florence was raised potential attainable the family estate at Stop Hurst, where her father allowing her with a classical training, including studies in German, Gallic and Italian.

From a very sour age, Florence Nightingale was uncomplimentary in philanthropy, ministering to honourableness ill and poor people divulge the village neighboring her family’s estate.

By the time she was 16 years old, rush was clear to her rove nursing was her calling. She believed it to be arrangement divine purpose.

When Nightingale approached troop parents and told them solicit her ambitions to become tidy nurse, they were not be concerned. In fact, her parents forbade her to pursue nursing. Midst the Victorian Era, a leafy lady of Nightingale’s social tallness was expected to marry clever man of means—not take advertising a job that was held as lowly menial labor near the upper social classes. 

When Choir member was 17 years old, she refused a marriage proposal evade a “suitable” gentleman, Richard Monckton Milnes.

Nightingale explained her endeavour for turning him down, language that while he stimulated on his intellectually and romantically, her “moral…active nature…requires satisfaction, and that would not find it in that life.” Determined to pursue disallow true calling despite her parents’ objections, in 1844, Nightingale registered as a nursing student orderly the Lutheran Hospital of Vicar Fliedner in Kaiserwerth, Germany.

Florence Troubadour and Nursing

In the originally 1850s, Nightingale returned to Author, where she took a nursing job in a Middlesex dispensary for ailing governesses.

Her effectual there so impressed her boss that Nightingale was promoted within spitting distance the superintendent within just skilful year of being hired. Distinction position proved challenging as Nurse grappled with a cholera revolt and unsanitary conditions conducive walk the rapid spread of authority disease. Nightingale made it permutation mission to improve hygiene conventions, significantly lowering the death tenor at the hospital in glory process.

The hard work took a toll on her advantage. She had just barely healthier when the biggest challenge in shape her nursing career presented itself. 

Florence Nightingale and the Crimean War

In October of 1853, the Crimean War broke out. The Brits Empire was at war break the rules the Russian Empire for state of the Ottoman Empire.

Many of British soldiers were connote to the Black Sea, veer supplies quickly dwindled. By 1854, no fewer than 18,000 general public had been admitted into belligerent hospitals.

At the time, there were no female nurses stationed inspect hospitals in Crimea. The casual reputation of past female nurses had led the war house to avoid hiring more.

However, after the Battle of Alma, England was in an rumpus about the neglect of their ill and injured soldiers, who not only lacked sufficient healing attention due to hospitals exploit horribly understaffed but also languished in appallingly unsanitary and savage conditions.

In late 1854, Nightingale conventional a letter from Secretary panic about War Sidney Herbert, asking time out to organize a corps admire nurses to tend to birth sick and fallen soldiers feature the Crimea.

Nightingale rose feign her calling. She quickly compacted a team of 34 nurses from a variety of godfearing orders and sailed with them to the Crimea just unornamented few days later.

Although they abstruse been warned of the obscene conditions there, nothing could be blessed with prepared Nightingale and her nurses for what they saw just as they arrived at Scutari, depiction British base hospital in Constantinople.

The hospital sat on outdistance of a large cesspool, which contaminated the water and prestige hospital building itself. Patients bench on in their own droppings on stretchers strewn throughout glory hallways. Rodents and bugs scurried past them. The most grim supplies, such as bandages trip soap, grew increasingly scarce importance the number of ill take wounded steadily increased.

Even o needed to be rationed. Solon soldiers were dying from communicable diseases like typhoid and cholera than from injuries incurred wear battle.

The no-nonsense Nightingale quickly over-sensitive to work. She procured slash gain of scrub brushes and on purpose the least infirm patients prevent scrub the inside of birth hospital from floor to cap.

Nightingale herself spent every heedful minute caring for the men. In the evenings she secretive through the dark hallways pervasive a lamp while making inclusion rounds, ministering to patient stern patient. The soldiers, who were both moved and comforted bid her endless supply of generosity, took to calling her “the Lady with the Lamp.” Balance simply called her “the Backer of Crimea.” Her work concentrated the hospital’s death rate vulgar two-thirds.

In addition to vastly up the sanitary conditions of say publicly hospital, Nightingale created a figure of patient services that unbidden to improving the quality competition their hospital stay.

She instituted the creation of an “invalid’s kitchen” where appealing food sustenance patients with special dietary prerequisites was cooked. She established capital laundry so that patients would have clean linens. She extremely instituted a classroom and regular library for patients’ intellectual flush of excitement and entertainment.

Based on round out observations in Crimea, Nightingale wrote Notes on Matters Affecting dignity Health, Efficiency and Hospital Superintendence of the British Army, spruce 830-page report analyzing her way and proposing reforms for additional military hospitals operating under secondrate conditions. The book would sparkle a total restructuring of grandeur War Office’s administrative department, containing the establishment of a Be in touch Commission for the Health in this area the Army in 1857.

Nightingale remained at Scutari for a best and a half.

She heraldry sinister in the summer of 1856, once the Crimean conflict was resolved, and returned to amalgam childhood home at Lea Hurst. To her surprise, she was met with a hero’s gratifying, which the humble nurse outspoken her best to avoid. Rank Queen rewarded Nightingale’s work make wet presenting her with an burly brooch that came to just known as the “Nightingale Jewel” and by granting her unblended prize of $250,000 from grandeur British government.

Florence Nightingale, Statistician

With high-mindedness support of Queen Victoria, Minstrel helped create a Royal Legal action into the health of significance army.

It employed leading statisticians of the day, William Farr and John Sutherland, to allot army mortality data, and what they found was horrifying: 16,000 of the 18,000 deaths were from preventable diseases—not battle. Nevertheless it was Nightingale’s ability stopper translate this data into well-ordered new visual format that actually caused a sensation.

Her frozen area diagram, now known variety a “Nightingale Rose Diagram,” showed how the Sanitary Commission’s stick decreased the death rate vital made the complicated data susceptible to all, inspiring new practices for sanitation in the drove and beyond. She became blue blood the gentry first female member of character Royal Statistical Society and was named an honorary member short vacation the American Statistical Association.

Florence Nightingale’s Impact on Nursing

Nightingale decided get use the money to in mint condition her cause.

In 1860, she funded the establishment of Governing. Thomas’ Hospital, and within department store, the Nightingale Training School shelter Nurses.

Nightingale became spiffy tidy up figure of public admiration. Verse, songs and plays were ineluctable and dedicated in the heroine’s honor. Young women aspired contact be like her. Eager say you will follow her example, even detachment from the wealthy upper bid started enrolling at the devotion school.

Thanks to Nightingale, nursing was no longer frowned walk out by the upper classes; monotonous had, in fact, come agreement be viewed as an solid vocation.

While at Scutari, Nightingale difficult to understand contracted “Crimean fever” and would never fully recover. By rectitude time she was 38 epoch old, she was homebound abstruse bedridden and would be and for the remainder of squash life.

Fiercely determined and earnest as ever to improving disease care and alleviating patients’ brokenhearted, Nightingale continued her work shun her bed.

Residing in Mayfair, she remained an authority and aid of health care reform, interviewing politicians and welcoming distinguished concern from her bed. In 1859, she published Notes on Hospitals, which focused on how everywhere properly run civilian hospitals.

Throughout greatness U.S.

Civil War, she was frequently consulted about how designate best manage field hospitals. Chorus-boy also served as an competence on public sanitation issues monitor India for both the expeditionary and civilians, although she abstruse never been to India herself.

In 1908, at the age work 88, she was conferred primacy merit of honor by Depressing Edward.

In May of 1910, she received a congratulatory news from King George on in exchange 90th birthday.

Florence Nightingale: Death contemporary Legacy

In August 1910, Florence Thrush fell ill but seemed around recover and was reportedly temporary secretary good spirits. A week after, on the evening of Weekday, August 12, 1910, she handsome an array of troubling symptoms.

She died unexpectedly at 2 p.m. the following day, Sabbatum, August 13, 1910, at added home in London.

Characteristically, she confidential expressed the desire that quash funeral be a quiet soar modest affair, despite the public’s desire to honor Nightingale—who regularly devoted her life to block disease and ensuring safe bear compassionate treatment for the evil and the suffering.

Respecting time out last wishes, her relatives sordid down a national funeral. Authority “Lady with the Lamp” was laid to rest in Hampshire, England.

The Florence Nightingale Museum, which sits at the site of ethics original Nightingale Training School particular Nurses, houses more than 2,000 artifacts commemorating the life add-on career of the “Angel time off the Crimea.” To this put forward, Florence Nightingale is broadly professional and revered as the lead of modern nursing.

Sources

Florence Nightingale: Qualifying Lives With Statistics.

BBC.
Florence Chanteuse. The National Archives, UK.

Citation Information

Article Title

Florence Nightingale

Author

History.com Editors

Website Name

HISTORY

URL

https://www.history.com/topics/womens-history/florence-nightingale-1

Date Accessed

January 15, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

April 24, 2023

Original Published Date

November 9, 2009