Urban living a hoot Have-a-go Flo
FLORENCE Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, was born 200 years ago tomorrow.
Dubbed The Lady With The Lamp, she was so influential that the new Covid-19 hospitals were named in her honour. To mark this incredible woman’s birthday, NADINE LINGE presents 12 facts about her life and work...
1 Despite becoming the world’s most famous nurse, it was a career Nightingale’s parents disapproved of. It was associated with alcoholism and low status, and nurses often turned to prostitution to make ends meet. So when the 16-year-old announced she had a “calling” to become a nurse, her family were not best pleased.
2 She defied them and started training aged 30, taking charge of a women’s hospital in London three years later.
3 Coming from a wealthy family, Nightingale had a good education and was fluent in French, Italian and German as well as knowing the basics of everything from maths to philosophy.
4 She refused to get married and turned down several marriage proposals. But she preferred the company of men to women, saying women were less capable than their male counterparts.
5 Nightingale is probably best known for her work during the Crimean War of the 1850s, which saw Britain, France, Sardinia and the Ottoman Empire defeat Russia. She managed and trained nurses and organised care for injured soldiers. She got her nickname from making rounds at night carrying her lamp.
6 During the conflict, she also realised that poor sanitation caused deaths. Working in a field hospital in Istanbul which was filthy and plagued with rats, 42.7% of patients admitted died.
7 She brought in hygiene rules reducing it to two per cent. She continued her work on hygiene after the war, lobbying for owners of properties to pay for connection to mains drainage and introducing trained nurses to workhouses. By 1930, Britain’s life expectancy had increased by 20 years.
8 Nightingale was also a master of statistics and helped make the pie chart popular by using it in research and presentations to help bring data to life.
9 Her 1859 book Notes on Nursing, 9 which featured advice such as frequent handwashing, became one of the profession’s most important texts, and is still relevant today.
10 You can hear her voice on Youtube. In 1890, she created a recording which raised money for Crimean War veterans, specifically those who fought in the disastrous Battle of Balaclava. In it she says: “When I am no longer even a memory, just a name, I hope my voice may perpetuate the great work of my life. God bless my dear old comrades of Balaclava and bring them safe to shore. Florence Nightingale.”
She has been the subject of 11 several films and TV shows, most recently a 2008 BBC One drama starring Laura Fraser. Her birthday also marks 12 the celebration of International Nurses Day, while new nurses take the Nightingale Pledge. She died peacefully in her sleep on August 13, 1910, aged 90.