| The Crimean War (1853-56) was raging and | | | | will fight their cause." |
| soldiers were dying like flies. Of the 94,000 British | | | | She also tried to assist with the wounded soldiers' |
| army soldiers involved in the war, 2,660 were | | | | psychological needs, providing assistance in writing |
| killed in action and nearly another 30,000 were | | | | letters to their relatives back home and organizing |
| casualties from disease and illness. | | | | educational and recreational activities. She even |
| The British Army knew that typhus, typhoid, | | | | wandered the wards at night, giving support to |
| cholera, dysentery, a total lack of sanitation and a | | | | the patients. |
| lack of supplies for the winter were largely to | | | | Nightingale came to be known as the "Lady With |
| blame; but, instead of fixing the situation, it just | | | | the Lamp" following a report in The Times of |
| wrote off the high casualties as a cost of war. | | | | London on her work in the Crimea which stated: |
| The war correspondent, W. H. Russell, wrote | | | | She is a 'ministering angel' without any |
| articles for The Times of London, reporting on | | | | exaggeration in these hospitals, and as her slender |
| the horrific battles and detailing the terrible | | | | form glides quietly along each corridor, every poor |
| sanitary conditions and high death rate for the | | | | fellow's face softens with gratitude at the sight of |
| wounded caused by an incompetent medical | | | | her. When all the medical officers have retired for |
| establishment in the military hospitals. He called for | | | | the night and silence and darkness have settled |
| female volunteers to "go forth and minister to the | | | | down upon those miles of prostrate sick, she |
| sick and suffering soldiers (...) at this extreme hour | | | | may be observed alone, with a little lamp in her |
| of need". | | | | hand, making her solitary rounds. |
| Florence Nightingale, a lady from a rich English | | | | In 1859 she wrote a small book, Notes on Nursing: |
| family who had earlier entered nursing despite | | | | What It Is and What It Is Not, which is regarded |
| great family opposition, responded to the call. In | | | | as the classic introduction to nursing. This book |
| October 1854, she and a staff of 38 women | | | | explained simple rules of health and established |
| volunteer nurses trained by herself and her aunt | | | | clear standards of the profession, with the |
| arrived in the Crimean war zone. Her job was to | | | | well-being and recovery of patients as the desired |
| oversee British miltary hospitals in Scutari in | | | | outcome. In 1860 she established the Nightingale |
| Turkey. Nightingale made three visits to the war | | | | Training School for nurses at St Thomas' Hospital |
| zone and during this period hygiene, ventilation and | | | | in London in which Notes on Nursing was the basic |
| food were improved, and more medical supplies | | | | textbook of the curriculum. |
| and equipment were provided. As a result, the | | | | Once the nurses graduated from the Nightingale |
| death rate dropped dramatically (down to about 2 | | | | Training School, they were appointed to hospitals |
| percent). | | | | all over Great Britain, taking with them |
| To achieve this she had to repeatedly fight | | | | Nightingale's ideas on nursing and nursing training. |
| sections of the British War Office which looked | | | | Nightingale's ideas and practices still form the |
| upon her work and ideas with suspicion and often | | | | foundation of the nursing profession in the 21st |
| tried to block her activities. She stated, "I stand at | | | | century. |
| the altar of the murdered men, and, while I live, I | | | | |