Florence Nightingale
May 12, 1820 – August 13, 1910
English nurse who reformed military hospitals in the Crimean War and founded modern professional nursing.
Biography
Florence Nightingale came from a wealthy British family and trained as a nurse against their wishes. During the Crimean War she led a team of nurses to the British military hospital at Scutari, where she improved sanitation and care and became famous as "the Lady with the Lamp".
After the war she used statistics and graphics to show that most soldiers had died of preventable disease, and she pushed for reform of army medical services.
In 1860 she founded a nursing school at St Thomas' Hospital in London, which became the model for professional nursing. She worked on public health in Britain and India for decades, largely from her bed because of chronic illness. She died in 1910.
