On May 12, 1820, Nightingale was born in Florence, Italy, on her parents' trip to Europe. She was an Englishwoman from a wealthy family. Her father, William Edward G. Gray, was an Englishman who lived in the city of Florence. Her father, William Edward Nightingale, graduated from Cambridge University. Nightingale graduated from Cambridge University, proficient in mathematics, proficient in a variety of foreign languages, in addition to the classics, but also in natural science, history and philosophy. Nightingale's mother Fanny. In 1820, Nightingale's mother, Fanny Smith, was born into a wealthy British family, and was known as a good Samaritan, and in 1820 they gave birth to Nightingale and named her after the place Florence.
Because of her family's wealth, Nightingale's early years were extremely comfortable. The people they interacted with were also socialites, including politicians, literary writers, artists, and some local gentlemen of the time. This enabled her to enjoy the comfort of the Victorian era to the fullest. But in Nightingale's little mind, the face of this kind of pampered life and do not feel happy, she Maine canon shy, do not want to see the stranger, often have a kind of inexplicable sense of silence. At the age of twelve, she studied Greek, Latin, French, German, Italian, history, mathematics and philosophy with her father. Under her father's guidance, Nightingale made great progress in her studies. She often read aloud with her father, talk, when her father went on a long trip, they exchanged letters and feelings. 1837, the family traveled to the European continent, the parents used the group of daughters to grow in all parts of Europe to see the world. At this time with Gale has been seventeen years old, Yiran became a beautiful big home show. Their family spent a year and a half, traveling around France, Italy, Switzerland, along the way to see the lakes and mountains, art monuments, and everywhere to investigate the social conditions. Nightingale from a young age has developed the habit of remembering things and writing a diary, what they saw and heard, are - a record, which has become an important information for her future schooling and governance. She met some famous people in France and socialized with famous women who were engaged in social activities. She took a keen interest in politics and the public, and was particularly attentive to charitable organizations. As a teenager, she embraced this self-belief in the service of mankind and a strong will to do good in the world. After her travels on the European continent, she found the care in hospitals to be extremely poor and felt that England needed to have a hospital such as the St. Vincent de Paul Mercy in France. She felt that there was a need in England for nuns to take care of the sick, as in the case of St. Vincent de Paul Home of Mercy in France. Nursing began to germinate in her mind and she wanted to be a nurse! The image of nurses in England at that time was that of crude, aging women who were ignorant, foolish and incapable of performing medical tasks. Nightingale's choice of this work seemed to her mother simply incredible! In 1839, the family returned to the United Kingdom, Nightingale has emerged as a dignified and generous, often in the family will be my socialites, very much the world's attention and appreciation. She particularly enjoyed the company of social workers and innovators from all walks of life, including a well-known physician who worked at the County Longleesbury, which inspired her to study at the hospital.
At that time, most hospital wards were large, overcrowded rooms with beds in close proximity to each other, the walls and floors covered in blood and stains, and the stench was intolerable to those who came in. Such deplorable conditions abound everywhere, and there is not much difference. Once an American physician, Dr. Samuel B. Hao, came to her home as a writer. Hao to her home writer, Nightingale consulted him on the views of the nurse, Dr. Hao praised her ideas, and encouraged her to persevere in her efforts, but ultimately difficult to obtain parental approval. During this time, justinger for catering to the hearts of parents, one side of the study, absorb the new knowledge about health, one side of the arrangement in the parents, to participate in some social activities, and met two extremely intimate boyfriend. One was her cousin, Henry Nicholson. One was her cousin, Henry Nicholson; the other was Charlie Mains. The other was Charlie Mains. But their advances were rejected by Nightingale. She decided to remain celibate! What a remarkable decision at the time, and she resolved to devote herself to nursing! She described her feelings at the time in detail in her diary, word for word and tear for tear. Mains went on to become a member of Parliament and a lifelong supporter of Nightingale's cause. At the beginning of 1848, she met Hildeo Hebert in Rome. Hebert, this gentleman is handsome and elegant, a British gentleman. Hebert and Nightingale at first sight, lifelong noble friendship, he later elected to become Minister of War, Nightingale's cause to give support. Two, thirty-year-old testimonials, said for the nursing cause of the noble ideals of a lifetime of struggle, in the nineteenth century, she is a new woman!
In October 1849, she once again traveled with friends to Egypt, crossing the sea to Greece; the following year in April, arrived in Athens. Everywhere she went, Nightingale visited charitable institutions, such as old people's homes, orphanages, and related medical relief organizations, etc. On May 12, 1850, which was her 30th birthday, she wrote this birthday message in her diary: "Today I am 30 years old, the very age at which Jesus Christ began to devote himself to the preaching of the Word. From now on there should be no more childish behavior. No more thoughts of love and marriage. Only let me think in accordance with God's will and do what he has ordained me to do. She felt that it was her God-given responsibility to devote herself to nursing!
In the years that followed, Nightingale persisted in her own ideals and pursued her own meaningful work, but she never got the understanding and support of her family, yet she was not discouraged and still took the opportunity to enrich herself. At this time, she was in her prime, and her knowledge and experience had gradually matured. Her perceptions were markedly different from those of society at the time, and were not understood by many, such as the desire for a professional job to care for elderly patients and children, either in a school or in a hospital. This was never a passing fancy of the noble lady to pass the time, but a real plan to make it a professional job, a vocation, and at the same time a sacred cause. This makes her strictly a new woman of the nineteenth century.
Third, from the initial push of nursing to the Crimean War, Nightingale's remarkable ability to heal was demonstrated, and she shocked the nation by reducing the death rate of wounded soldiers at the front from 40% to 2%!
Nightingale's ambition finally touched her father, who promised to support her with ￡500 a year, so on August 12, 1853, under the auspices of the Charity Commission, a nursing home was established at One Harley Street, London, and she began to carry out her ambitions. She adopted a series of revolutionary management measures that were astonishing to the people of the time: she emphasized the comfort of the patients above all else, and valued the welfare of the nurses. She used bell-pulling to summon the nurses; set up a winch in the kitchen to transport meals to the patients; introduced bulk purchasing to save money; and advocated freshly prepared jams, etc. She insisted that no woman should be left behind if she did not want to be a nurse. She insisted on her proposition that any woman, rich or poor, regardless of creed, could be taken in if she was ill. She showed superior managerial ability, and the commissioners had great confidence in her.
In August 1854, when cholera broke out in the slums of a London suburb, Nightingale volunteered for emergency work, regardless of her personal safety. She cared for dying patients in the hospital, all day long, many people died in her arms. Mrs. Caskell on Nightingale's righteousness is highly esteemed, because she personally experienced and felt the spirit of Nightingale's dedication, she describes: "She is tall, slim and slender; a head of brown dense short hair; white and fine complexion; grey eyes flashing melancholy depressed look, but sometimes show waves of happiness, really memorable; her teeth are beautifully straight and a sweet smile. Her head was covered with a long, soft scarf of hair, tied up along the corners, which set off her white, quiet, melon-faced face with even greater beauty. She often wore a black silk material long shirt, plus a black shawl, giving people a graceful and elegant. The impression of generosity...." In March 1854, Britain and France officially declared war on Russia to aid Turkey. In September, the British and French allied forces landed in the Crimea, and in the reports sent back from the front, there was considerable comment on the fact that the wounded soldiers were not being cared for. It was reported that there were nuns in France to look after the wounded, and the Sisters of Mercy in Russia, so why were there no nuns in England to look after the wounded! When Nightingale heard of this, she immediately wrote a letter to the then Minister of War, Mrs. Hébert, offering to lead forty nurses at her own expense to help the wounded in the war. On October 15, Minister Hébert agreed to her request and wrote back to Nightingale, inviting her to lead a group of nurses to Scutari, to be appointed by the government and given financial support. Nightingale readily agreed, and five days later the government made her head of the Women's Nursing Corps at the British General Hospital in Turkey. The corps consisted of thirty-eight members, fourteen of whom were professional nurses selected from various hospitals and twenty-four from various religious orders. On October 21, they were hastily attired for the journey. Arriving at Scutari on November 4, they were immediately engaged in busy work. The site of the British hospital was originally a Turkish garrison barracks, the building was simple and the equipment was lacking, the whole hospital was dirty and disorganized. Because of the scheduled accommodation of 2,500 wounded, so all the corridors are opened into wards. These corridors were four miles long, with overcrowded beds, poor sanitary facilities, particularly poor ventilation, foul smells, sludge on the ground in rainy weather, sand in the morning, swarms of rats roaming everywhere, and the environment was extremely harsh. Each patient was allocated only 500 milliliters of water per day. As there were not enough beds, many patients slept on the floor, and there were not enough blankets, some of which were replaced by canvas, which many wounded soldiers preferred not to use. Fuel was constantly in short supply, and the provision of meals was even more unsatisfactory. General medicine was extremely scarce. Under these harsh conditions, a large number of wounded soldiers were infected with dysentery and cholera. Initially, based on traditional perceptions and jealousy, the physicians advocated that they not be allowed in the wards without instructions from the physicians. They were turned away for four days in a row. Faced with this situation, Florence Nightingale first set about improving the diet of the wounded soldiers, changing dirty clothes, **** with the commitment to clean up the work. She y felt that a perfect hospital, there must be adequate water supply and good drainage system. In three months she cleaned 10,000 shirts. In order to accommodate 800 new patients, she paid for emergency repairs to the wards. Nightingale's positive spirit of service finally dissolved the hostility of the military doctors and won the love and trust of the wounded. She devoted all her energy to nursing work night and day, which gradually put the hospital on the right track, and her office naturally became the center of warmth and love. In addition to her busy nursing work, she had to answer a large number of letters and inquiries. When she found out that there were problems with the health situation, she wrote to the British government and parliamentarians, asking for expert support or adopting certain reforms in accordance with her suggestions. As a result of her efforts, the death rate of wounded British soldiers at the front was reduced from 40% to 2%. This achievement was a great encouragement to her, and was well received by the British public and private sector.
In 1855, Florence Nightingale crossed the Black Sea to Balaklava to supervise the care of two hospitals on the Crimean front that had been set up as a practical necessity and needed to be supported by nurses. She in the Crimea full of bumps and tiring, in-depth visits to the front line, despite the darkness, cold, danger, personal safety completely at risk, this professionalism, so that the British army greatly encouraged! Because she was overworked, unfortunately infected with Crimean fever, physicians believe that has been unable to save, the condition of nearly dying, but she still kept writing, writing, writing, instructing the affairs, holding sick work. The news reached Scutari, and all the wounded soldiers wept over it. General Raglan, then Field Commander on the island of Kerch, rushed to see her and reported the illness to London, and the country was shocked! The physicians told her to return to England to recuperate, but Nightingale insisted on remaining in the Crimea. Although she was ill, she knew in her heart that if she left, all her efforts would be reduced to nothing. Few could match her sense of duty and loyalty. It was not until July, 1855, that she gradually recovered her health. According to the new science of health, under the careful design of Nightingale, military nursing gradually expanded the work of health education, and step by step to develop, every night, she ignored the cold and wind, necessarily carrying an oil lamp, to the ward rounds of patients, to give wholehearted comfort and care. Wherever she went, some of the wounded soldiers bent down to kiss her shadow! This warm picture of the play of human love, written by the famous American poet Longfellow "lamp lady" a poem and famous Doyle.
Nightingale, with the firm ideals and ambitions to save mankind, pioneered modern nursing alone on the front line, which was such a daunting challenge for a woman! She not only broke through the difficulties, and gained such achievements, more nursing work has created a far-reaching cause. This kind of behavior, in the ancient and modern Chinese and foreign women are rare.
In view of the heroism of Nightingale on the front line. November 29, 1855, London socialites **** with the launch of the Nightingale Foundation. The British see her as the new Joan of Arc. Once the appeal was made, donations from the nation came pouring in, and the soldiers in the Crimea alone donated nine thousand pounds in one day. The Queen of England donated a portrait of the Duke of Wellington, and she gave Nightingale a gold diamond brooch as a personal gesture of approval and gratitude.
On March 16, 1856, the Secretary of State for War issued an order recognizing Nightingale's achievements and formally granting her the status of working in the army, and that any transfer of nursing staff and service support must have her consent, and that the Chief of the Army Medical Officer must consult fully with her about the nursing work before it can be carried out, which was a major victory for Nightingale. At the end of the war, when she finally left Scutari, she deliberately came to the British cemetery, and in front of their graves vowed: "as long as I exist, I will fight for your life piece of her life after that, are in practice this solemn promise. 29 April, the last patient left the camp hospital, July 28 M. She sailed home. The British nation was prepared to welcome her with a hero's triumph, but not wishing to make herself known, she returned quietly to London under the name of Miss Smith, and on August 7 she surprised her family by returning alone to her old home in Lehigh. The next morning, the village church rang a series of bells in honor of the heroine. Her name rang out and she became a household name in England.
Fourth, a wealth of practical experience and learning, laid her nursing academic position; the creation of modern nursing education, recognized as the originator of modern nursing.
Nightingale in addition to attention to the nursing management of military hospitals, at the same time pay attention to the reform of the national health care related issues. 1859, she completed a "hospital summary", the hospital building and hospital management, put forward a revolutionary theory. She emphasized that good architecture, hygiene and management would lead to better care for patients. She proposed new ideas for ward management that changed the old concepts of care. The impact of this book on the health field at the time could not be described in a few words, and many of the country's military men and women sought to purchase it as the definitive statement and model for hospital reform. At that time, the naming and classification of diseases was confusing, and often hospitals were working on their own. Nightingale developed a standard model for hospital statistics, which enabled hospitals to accurately represent the number of relevant deaths, and was adopted by hospitals across the United Kingdom, which was recognized as a remarkable contribution.
At the end of 1859, she published another book (Nursing Abstracts), which was made available to women in general, and it immediately became a bestseller. Not only the British mainland is popular, in the United States is also popular, and later became a textbook for nursing schools. 1860 June 24, she was founded in St. Thomas Hospital, Nightingale School of Nursing opened, and from then on the formal establishment of the nursing education system, Nightingale was also public. Considered the originator of modern nursing.
Nightingale's achievements, not only in the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States are recognized as medical and nursing experts, the United States, Italy, Portugal, Holland and other major medical issues related to the countries and plans, as well as the establishment of the International Red Cross, have been able to Nightingale's assistance and support. 1865, October, she moved to London Street, No. 10, which is her parents purchased a home for her, and since then, she has been the first time that she was in the United States. In October 1865, she moved to 10 London Street, a home purchased for her by her parents, where she has since settled.
In December 1907, King Edward VII awarded her the Order of Merit. This was the first time such a medal had been awarded to a woman, and it was a great honor. It had been proposed a little earlier that a display of the progress of nursing should be made on the 60th anniversary of Queen Victoria's inauguration, but Nightingale objected. She did not want her picture to be put out there for all to see, and thought it would be a fool's errand. However, at the urging of Mrs. Wantage, she agreed to display a bronze bust of her and a carriage in which she rode. To her surprise, flowers were piled up underneath her bronze statue and veterans came forward to kiss the Crimean carriage. She was honored as the most revered Madonna of the British Army. On August 13, 1910, Florence Nightingale died in her sleep. Nightingale's life, through the whole of Queen Victoria's era, such as her commitment to social reform and achieve results, at that time is really a rare group of people. Her personal vision and ambition to create the modern nursing profession was an unprecedented contribution to humanity. Today she is honored as a nursing pioneer, and rightly so.