Florence Nightingale was an English woman, born in 1820 and died in 1910, who was the founder of modern nursing and the founder of modern nurse education. During the war, Florence Nightingale risked her life to save countless wounded in poor conditions, and to alleviate the pain of the wounded, she tried every possible means to improve the living environment and nutritional conditions of the wounded, and also took out 30,000 British pounds for the hospital to purchase additional medicines and medical equipment. Under her efforts, the field hospitals underwent great changes, and the mortality rate of the wounded dropped from 40% to 2%. After the end of the war, Nightingale was engaged in hygiene and preventive work for a long time in the slums of India and Britain. Was awarded the Medal of Honor by Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, the German Cross of Medal and so on. Nightingale's noble character and brilliant performance touched people from all walks of life in the United Kingdom, the government and individuals have contributed to the establishment of the Nightingale Fund, Nightingale founded the world's first nursing school in 1860. She authored books such as "Hospital Records", "Nurses' Notes" and "On How to Reform Barracks Health", and wrote many teaching materials on nursing, health care and hospital management, turning nursing into a discipline of medical science.
The Nightingale Medal is named after Nightingale, on the one hand, to commemorate her outstanding contribution to nursing and show her respect; on the other hand, it is also to inspire nursing personnel all over the world to establish outstanding achievements in this noble humanitarian cause.
The fund for the Nightingale Medal is contributed by national Red Cross societies and the selection process is carried out by the International Committee of the Red Cross. The cut-off date for applying for this award is March 1, and generally on May 12, International Nurses' Day, the day of Nightingale's birthday, the ICRC officially notifies the national Red Cross societies of the names of the winners, and a solemn award ceremony is held in each country. The Nightingale Medal consists of a silver medal and a citation. On the obverse side of the medal is the image of Florence Nightingale with the inscription "In memory of Florence Nightingale 1820-1910"; on the reverse side is a quotation from Nightingale. The name of the recipient and the date of the award are engraved in the center of the medal.