Florence Nightingale - Lady with the Lamp

Rich English parents who were visiting Florence, Italy, on May 12, 1820, welcomed Florence Nightingale into the world.Of the two daughters, she was the younger.Her sister Parthenope was born in Naples and given the Greek name for the city's ancient history; Florence and her sister were called for the Italian cities in which they were born. 

Nursing pioneer Florence Nightingale had a significant impact on 19th- and 20th-century regulations pertaining to appropriate care. She gained notoriety as the "Lady with the Lamp" due to her nightly rounds to assist the injured.

The Nightingales split their time between two homes when they were living in England: Lea Hurst in Derbyshire during the summer and Embley in Hampshire during the winter. Their father taught the two girls, and Florence in particular did well in school. The Nightingales had high hopes for their daughters' marriages and social lives. Florence, however, had different thoughts. She founded nursing as a separate profession after experiencing a "divine calling" to carry out God's mission as a teenager in 1837. This "divine calling" spurred Florence to advocate for social and health care problems.

Nightingale's parents were not happy when she went to them and told them about her goal to become a nurse. Her parents actually discouraged her from becoming a nurse.Nightingale turned down a "suitable" gentleman named Richard Monckton Milnes' marriage proposal in 1849.

After her return to London in the early 1850s, Nightingale accepted a position as a nurse in a Middlesex hospital serving sick governesses. Within a year of her hiring, Nightingale's performance so impressed her employer that she was elevated to superintendent.By focusing on enhancing sanitary standards, Nightingale was able to drastically reduce the hospital's fatality rate.

October 1853 saw the start of the Crimean War. For sovereignty of the Ottoman Empire, the British and Russian empires were at war. Supplies rapidly ran out in the Black Sea, where thousands of British forces were deployed. At least 18,000 troops had been admitted to military hospitals by 1854.

Most people undoubtedly know Florence Nightingale best for her contributions during the Crimean War (1854–1856). Nightingale and her 38 nurses landed in Scutari, the British camp outside Constantinople, on November 4, 1854. The female nurses were initially met with disdain by the doctors, but as the patient load increased, their assistance became increasingly necessary in the filthy, congested hospital.Florence oversaw the nurses who provided the patients with comfort, wholesome food, hygiene, and sanitation. Nightingale was renowned for giving soldiers the kind of individual attention that eased their distress and enhanced their mental well-being, such as sending letters home.. Within six months, her team of nurses turned the hospital into a healthy setting, and patient mortality decreased from 40 to 2 percent.

Nightingale spent a year and a half at Scutari. After the Crimean War was over, she left in the summer of 1856 and went back to her childhood home at Lea Hurst. Florence came home a hero in 1857. She was initially referred to as the "Lady with the Lamp" by the soldiers in Crimea due to the comforting image of her visiting the sick and injured during the night with a lamp, and the label stuck with her.

A $250,000 prize from the British government and an engraved brooch that became known as the "Nightingale Jewel" were given to Nightingale by Queen Victoria the year before in recognition of her hard work. Nightingale made the decision to spend the funds for her mission. She provided funding for the construction of St. Thomas' Hospital in 1860, which housed the Nightingale Training School for Nurses.

Major works:-

• She released her research as Notes on Matters Affecting the British Army's Health, Efficiency, and Hospital Administration in 1858. 

• At St. Thomas Hospital, Florence Nightingale established the Nightingale Training School for Nurses in 1860. She significantly enhanced nursing standards. Florence conducted interviews and provided supervision for each probationer who joined the school. 

• The East London Nursing Society (1868), the Queen's Jubilee Nursing Institute (1890), the work home Nursing Association, and the National Society for providing Trained Nurses for the Poor (1874) were all founded thanks in part to Nightingale.

• Nightingale volunteered to go to India right away if she might be of any use when the Indian Mutiny broke out in 1857. Although her services were not needed, she developed an interest in the army's and its members' hygienic conditions. Her efforts led to the establishment of the Indian government's Sanitary Department.

• She made a contribution to a study on Indian village cleanliness in 1890. Notes on Nursing, her book, was initially published in 1860 and was reprinted numerous times while she was alive.

She was granted the Freedom of the City of London in 1908 after receiving the Order of Merit in 1907. She already had the French gold medal of Secours aux Blessés Militaires and the German decoration of the Cross of Merit.

Florence Nightingale experienced poor health and blindness as she aged. Florence was an invalid by the middle of the 1890s. She received the Norwegian Red Cross Society's badge of distinction on May 10, 1910. At the age of 90, Nightingale passed away at South Street, Park Lane, London on August 13, 1910. She was laid to rest in the family plot in East Wellow, Hampshire, on August 20. .