Florence Nightingale: Pioneer of Nursing

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Florence Nightingale at work in the Therapia Hospital in Turkey during the Crimean War—19th-century portrait, print. Florence Nightingale’s 200th birthday comes with added reverence in 2020, as doctors and nurses fight to save lives amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of Nightingale’s trailblazing leadership, the maintenance of impeccable sanitary conditions in hospitals is a standard practice today. This wasn’t always the case. Born on May 12, 1820, in the Italian city of Florence, into an affluent British family, Nightingale became a nurse over her parents’ objections. At the time, nursing was not a highly respected profession. Nonetheless, she persevered. During the Crimean War (1853–56), she and a team of 34 nurses treated British and allied soldiers in military hospitals in Scutari, Turkey. Nightingale was known as the “Lady with the Lamp” because she wandered the wards at night checking on patients. In wartime conditions, nurses were not changing their uniforms or aprons and work