Florence Nightingale Biography

Updated On : May 31, 2022Florence Nightingale was a British social reformer who founded modern nursing. Her biggest contribution to humanity was when she volunteered to help in the Crimean war to tend to wounded soldiers. Later in life she tried to bring about reforms regarding the hygiene problems of the Army hospitals. She wrote many books and letters to improvise the treatments and care given to wounded soldiers. She laid the foundation for pursuing nursing as a profession by elite British women and others as well. In the Victorian age the society was cruel towards women taking up this vocation. They felt that for nursing one did not need much intelligence or knowledge; and nurses were thought of as being a little above prostitutes at that time. Florence changed the whole notion and perspective of the society and gave a new meaning to nursing altogether. She fought till the very end for better health care and proper sanitation facilities after losing more men in the Crimean war due to infections than battle-wounds. She was also a brilliant mathematician and a versatile writer. She was a true feminist and though she was not much of an orthodox, she stayed with the church till the end. The Nightingale pledge in her honour is taken by new nurses promising to fulfil their duties as care-givers.