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Essay on Florence Nightingale
Introduction
Florence Nightingale, who came to be known as The Lady with the Lamp, was the pioneer of modern nursing. Each year, the International Nurses Day is celebrated on her birth anniversary. Born into a wealthy and well-connected British family at the Villa Colombia in Florence, Italy, she was named after the city of her birth, as was her older sister. A brilliant and strong-willed woman, Florence rebelled against the expected role for a woman of her status, which was to become an obedient wife.
Life of Florence Nightingale
Inspired by what she understood to be a divine calling Nightingale made a commitment to nursing, a career with a poor reputation and filled mostly by poorer women. Traditionally, female hangers-on who followed the armies handled the role of nurse; they were equally likely to function as cooks or prostitutes. Nightingale was particularly concerned with the appalling conditions of medical care for the legions of the poor and indigent. She announced her decision to her family in 1845, evoking intense anger and distress from her family, particularly her mother. (Woodham-Smith, 1996)
In December 1844, in response to a pauper's death in a workhouse infirmary in London that became a public scandal, Nightingale became the leading advocate for improved medical care in the infirmaries and immediately engaged the support of Charles Villiers, then president of the Poor Law Board. This led to her active role in the reform of the Poor Laws, extending far beyond the provision of medical care.
In 1846 she visited Kaiserwerth, Germany, and learned more of its pioneering hospital established by Theodor Fliedner and managed by an order of Lutheran deaconesses. She was greatly impressed by the quality of medical care and by the commitment and practices of the deaconesses.
in 1851 she rejected the marriage proposal of politician and poet Richard Monckton Milnes, 1st Baron Houghton, against her mother's wishes....
