Timeline: Florence Nightingale, 1820–1910

Florence Nightingale is known as the founder of modern nursing. She established nursing as a respected profession, trained a generation of nurses, and emphasized the importance of proper hygiene and personalized care.

Nightingale believed that she had received a divine calling, and developed an interest in social issues, which led her eventually to commit herself to nursing. In 1851, Nightingale obtained her nurse training at the Institute of Protestant Deaconesses in Kaiserwerth, Germany. From 1853–1854, she worked as the superintendant of the Institute for the Care of Sick Gentlewomen in London.

The Crimean War

Nightingale is best remembered for her contributions during the Crimean War (1854–1856). In November of 1854, Nightingale and her group of 38 volunteer nurses arrived at the Celimiye Barracks in Scutari (part of modern Istanbul). Conditions in the military hospital were appalling, and the sick soldiers suffered due to poor hygiene, overcrowding, and shortages of food and medicine. Only one in six soldiers died from battle wounds, the rest succumbed to typhus, cholera, dysentery, and other diseases. Initially the military resisted Nightingale's attempts at reform. Nightingale countered by contacting The Times of London, and got the paper to expose the poor treatment wounded soldiers received. Afterwards, Nightingale was given the task of reorganizing the barracks, and the death rates at Scutari dropped dramatically due to improved sanitary conditions.

Training Nurses

In 1856, Nightingale returned to Britain as a national heroine. She pressed for medical reform within the army, and received the support of Queen Victoria, doctors, soldiers, and the general public. In 1857, she gave evidence to the Royal Commission on the Health of the Army, which led to a major overhaul of medical care within the military, and later the creation of the Army Medical College.

In 1860, the Nightingale Training School at St. Thomas's Hospital opened in London (now the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing & Midwifery, and part of King's College London). In 1865, the school's first graduates began working at the Liverpool Workhouse Infirmary. By 1882, the so-called Nightingale nurses had gained growing influence, and some had become matrons at leading British hospitals.

Nightingale also had a significant impact on American nursing. During the American Civil War (1861–1865), she gave advice on how to care for wounded soldiers. She helped Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell develop her plans for a medical school, and in 1869, Elizabeth and Emily Blackwell opened the Women's Medical College in New York.

Nightingale's published Notes on Nursing in 1859, which formed foundation of her nursing school's curriculum. She is also the author of the 1859 Notes on Hospitals and Suggestions for Thought to Searchers after Religious Truths, which advocated that women should be able to pursue careers. Nightingale received many honors for her work, including the Royal Red Cross in 1883 and the Order of Merit in 1907.

Lady with the Lamp

Nightingale was also known as "The Lady with the Lamp," an iconic image of the caring and compassionate nurse. The moniker came from an article in The Times, which described Nightingale as "A 'ministering angel' … When … silence and darkness have settled down upon those miles of prostrate sick, she may be observed alone, with a little lamp in her hand, making her solitary rounds." The image was further popularized in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem Santa Filomena, which reads:

Meanwhile … 1809–1882: Lifetime of Charles Darwin. 1822–1895: Lifetime of Louis Pasteur. 1833: Slavery Abolition Act bans slavery in the British Empire. 1837–1901: Reign of Queen Victoria. 1843–1910: Lifetime of Robert Koch. 1847–1931: Lifetime of Thomas Edison. 1854–1856: Crimean War between France, the United Kingdom, the Ottoman Empire, and Russia. 1856–1939: Lifetime of Sigmund Freud. 1861–1865: American Civil War. 1867: Canadian Confederation.

Discuss This Article

Have something you'd like to say? Tell us what you think! Read and post comments for this article.

Find a Job

Choose your career:

MedHunters is the world's biggest healthcare job board. Our job directory has 16,863 jobs with 2,351 hospitals and other direct employers.

We want you to find your next job on MedHunters. Need Help? Call us at 1-888-884-8242, email us at info@medhunters.com or sign up now.