Florence Nightingale Biography

I am Florence Nightingale. I was born on May 12th, 1820 in Florence, Italy. My parents were inspired by the city to name me. My parents are William and Frances Nightingale. My father was a wealthy landowner and owned three estates. My mother was a British socialite known for her beauty. I am the youngest of the two daughters and also less important, according to my parents.1 My sister, Parthenope, and I were complete opposites.2 My sister and I were raised to be very social since our family was apart of a British, elite circle. I absolutely hated being the center of attention.1 Being a wealthy family, we were expected to have a tutor to come to teach my sister and me. Only a third of families could even afford to send their children to public …show more content…
This began the Crimean War.5 The British Empire was against the Russians for the control of the Ottoman Empire.7 The British and French troops invaded Crimea on September 14th, 1854. The Battle of Alma was fought six days later.4 In 1854, I received a letter from the Secretary of War, Sidney Herbert, to create a group of nurses to help those injured in the war. My group consisted of thirty four other women.7 I was sent to nurse in Scutari, Turkey and the Crimean Peninsula in Ukraine.4 The Scutarian hospital was located in Constantinople.There were not many female nurses. We had a bad reputation in others eyes.7 The Russians and French had more nurses than the British but the War Office chose to reject their help.4 The doctors had despised the nurses and I. We were forbidden the work with them until we were flooded with injured soldiers and had no choice.5 The hospitals at this time were not considered to be a place of healing. There were high death rates of Cholera and Malaria. The Cholera germ attacks bowels and causes diarrhea and dehydration. Malaria caused very high fevers.5 Most of the men had been injured in the Battle of Balaclava and died while being transported on ships due to the poor conditions.4 I had discovered that most of the men, aged twenty to thirty five, had twice the mortality rate of citizens at the time.3 The losses of the army had been over sixty percent. Over 19,000 died from illness while 4000 had died from …show more content…
Thomas and Nightingale Training School for Nurses in 1860. I financed my school with the money given to me by the British government and it opened with ten students.37 The upper class had always frowned upon my nursing career but many began to enroll into my school. In 1908, I was awarded the Merit of Honor from King