Her Legacy as a Health Care Pioneer
- Contributed to the development of nursing as a true profession and inspired the first professional school of nursing
- Developed the modern hospital including architecture, organizational charts, medical records, infection control, patient education, and nutritional services
- Invented statistical diagrams to report the first hospital epidemiological study showing how basic sanitation reduced death rates
- Was the first effective advocate for the health of soldiers and veterans
- Wrote “Notes on Nursing” which is cited as one of the most influential books in the history of health care
- Improved hygiene processes after dealing with a cholera outbreak and unsanitary conditions that were conducive to the rapid spread of the disease
- Led a team of nurses to treat British soldiers injured during the Crimean War, which broke out in 1853
- Worked tirelessly to clean up the Scutari Barrack Hospital and improve care for the soldiers with her efforts reducing the death rate by two thirds
- Was known to patients as “the Lady with Lamp” as she spent nights monitoring and helping patients by candlelight
- Proclaimed passionately, “I stand at the Altar of the murdered men [Crimean War soldiers] and while I live I fight their cause.”
- Wrote “Notes on Matters Affecting the Health, Efficiency and Hospital Administration of the British Army,” an 830-page report analyzing her experience in Crimea and proposing reforms for hospitals
- Recognized for her work by Queen Victoria who presented her an engraved broach and granted her a prize of $250,000 from the British government
- Created, with Queen Victoria’s support, a Royal Commission into the health of the army by employing the country’s top statisticians
- Funded the establishment of St. Thomas’ Hospital—with the Nightingale Training School for Nurses as part of it—with money from the Queen
- Developed the “Nightingale Rose Diagram” to prove the effectiveness of the Sanitary Commission’s work on decreasing the death rate
- Named the first female member of the Royal Statistical Society
- Changed society’s view on nursing, which had been looked down on by the upper classes, as her notoriety and efforts resulted in it being considered an honorable profession
- Battled poor health, which has been attributed to her contracting “Crimean fever,” and was bedridden by age 38 but remained an advocate for health care reform
- Published “Notes on Hospitals,” which focused on civilian hospitals, in 1859
- Served as a consultant (from afar) for the U.S. Civil War on how to best manage field hospitals for injured soldiers
- Awarded the merit of honor by King Edward in 1908 at the age of 88
- Died at age 90 on August 13, 1910, at her home in London
EARLY LIFE
- Born May 12, 1820, in Florence, Italy, to Frances Nightingale and William Shore Nightingale
- Grew up in the family home in Lea Hurst in England with a classical education
- Declared her calling by age 16 to serve others as a nurse
- Enrolled as a nursing student at the Lutheran Hospital of Pastor Fliedner in Kaiserwerth, Germany, in 1844
- Returned to London as a nurse in a Middlesex hospital for the chronically ill
