This is Florence Nightingale.
Florence was born in 1820 in a big city in Italy. It's called Florence and that's how she got her name.
She went to the Crimean War to nurse wounded soldiers.
She became known as ‘The Lady with the Lamp’.
Florence Nightingale is remembered for showing people that nursing was a very important job.
Watch: Florence Nightingale
There was a time when, if people became ill or injured, they would probably die.
Doctors tried to save them, but hospitals weren't clean, so disease spread.
A young English woman, called Florence Nightingale, decided to help.
Florence wanted to become a nurse, but at that time nursing was not the sort of job people like Florence did.
Her family was wealthy, so she wasn't expected to have a job at all! But she was religious and clever and desperately wanted to help.
After training, Florence started a hospital in London.
She had many ideas about better ways to look after sick people, like nurses washing their hands and keeping hospitals clean.
She said the very first requirement in a hospital is that it should do the sick no harm.
At the time, Britain was fighting a war in Crimea, Russia. Soldiers died from wounds but even more died from diseases.
Florence went to Crimea and took nurses with her.
To stop disease, she cleaned the hospitals and gave patients healthy food. She even looked after them at night, using a lamp to see in the dark.
She became known as ‘The Lady with the Lamp’.
Florence's great work made her famous.
She used her influence to turn nursing into an important job and make hospitals better.
She started a nursing school at St. Thomas' Hospital in 1860 and wrote books so that nurses could be properly trained to do their job.
Florence made such a difference to nursing that she was given many awards.
Today, we remember her by awarding nurses who give the best care in war and peace, the Florence Nightingale Medal!
Medicine in the 1800s
There was no medicine to stop infections killing people.
Not many people understood about how important it was to keep medical equipment and hospital beds clean to stop disease spreading.
Florence Nightingale changed the way injured and sick people were treated.
In London, she started the first nursing training school in the world.
She was an educated woman. She made big changes to public life which focussed on men.
Florence Nightingale's life
- In 1853 Florence Nightingale was the head of a nursing group in London.
- The next year she went with 38 trained nurses to the war in the Crimea. Britain was fighting there against Russia.
- In the military hospital thousands of injured soldiers died of diseases and infections. This was because of the filthy conditions.
- Nightingale said people should wash their hands in hospitals.
- This helped bring the number of deaths down from 41% to 2%.
- In 1860 she set up a training school at St. Thomas’s Hospital in London. The hospital still exists today.
- She wrote a famous book, Notes on Nursing which was used to train nurses.
- Her trained nurses went on to work in hospitals around Britain and the world.
Did you know?
- Queen Victoria invited Florence Nightingale to meet her at Balmoral Castle in Scotland.
- Florence liked cats for company and also had a pet owl called Athena.
Activity 1 – Sort the events in Florence Nightingale's life
Activity 2 – Florence Nightingale quiz
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