In 1853, the Crimean War broke out between Britain, France and other countries and Russia. At the beginning of the war, the British army had very poor medical care. The death rate of the wounded was as high as 42%. When these facts were disclosed by the press, the country was in uproar. Nightingale, in response to a letter from the British government, led 38 nurses to the front. With her ideals and ambitions, she pioneered modern nursing on her own at the front. For a 35-year-old woman at the time, this was a very difficult challenge. At that time, female nurses called "Sisters" (Srsters) had long existed in the advanced countries of Europe, but Britain, due to religious and social stereotypes, had been opposed to the presence of female nurses in hospitals, especially in field hospitals. As a result, there were never any female nurses serving in the army in the past. Nightingale fully demonstrated her talents in all aspects at the front. She used her position and prestige to break through the barriers of the military authorities. Took out her own 30,000 pounds for the hospital to buy drugs and medical equipment and re-organization of the hospital, the establishment of the wounded to improve the living environment and nutritional conditions, reorganization of the operating room, canteen and laboratory, and soon changed the face of the field hospitals, can only take in 1,700 wounded field hospitals through her arrangements actually received 3,000 to 4,000 wounded. Here, her managerial and organizational skills were brought into full play. 6 months later, the field hospital underwent a dramatic change, with the casualty mortality rate dropping rapidly from 42% to 2%. This miraculous and visible nursing effect shook the country, and at the same time changed the value of nurses in Britain and raised the status of women, nursing work has been valued by the community since then. The importance of nursing was recognized. At the same time, for women to open up and create a noble profession. Nightingale to pay a great deal of energy and effort, she established a nurse patrol system, every night she always carries a wind lamp patrol wards, a night tour of the distance in more than 7 kilometers. Nightingale worked more than 20 hours a day, overworked, so that she contracted a lifelong disease. Upon returning to England, many soldiers compiled pamphlets and countless poems about Nightingale's exploits in the field hospitals. One poem, which was still being recited by British soldiers at reunions 50 years later, called Nightingale "the defender of the wounded, the patron saint, unselfish, with a pure heart, Miss Nightingale, the greatest blessing God has ever bestowed on us".
Revolutionary mentor Karl Marx and Nightingale were contemporaries, he admired Nightingale's bravery and dedication and was moved to write two passionate newsletters, published in Germany's "Neue Ordnungszeitung" and the U.S. "New York Tribune," so that the world is aware of this great woman. Nightingale's great contributions are: First, the founding of the world's first formal nursing school Nightingale left the front in November 1856 after the end of the war. After returning home, she had no time to take care of the tired and weak body, and immediately began to write books and dedicated to the intense work of the founding of the nursing school, her writings and more than 100 papers over the years are considered to be an important contribution to nursing education and hospital management.
June 24, 1860, she will be the British people from all walks of life in recognition of her meritorious service and donated a large sum of money as the "Nightingale Fund" in St. Thomas' Hospital in London to create the "Nightingale Nurses Training School". St. Thomas' Hospital was founded in 1213 and has a long history of excellence in England. It was different from other hospitals in that it was never controlled by religion. The purpose of this school, considered by posterity to be the first formal nursing school in the world, was to experiment with a new type of school that was non-religious in nature by making nursing a scientific profession. She had clear rules for school management, selection of students, scheduling of courses, internships, and evaluation of grades, and formally established the nursing education system, pioneering the great cause of the modern nursing profession. This was an unprecedented contribution to mankind as a whole, and for this reason she deserves to be recognized as the pioneer of nursing. She felt that it was not easy to nurture nursing talent, so she set out two principles: first, nurses should not just do the work of "scrubbers"; and second, unless trained, should not be the head of the nurses and teach others.
Nandingale's plan for the school and its basic principles were: "Nurses must receive technical training in specially organized hospitals, and they must live in school dormitories adapted to the improvement of morals and discipline." She drew up a "Daily Statement of the Conduct and Academic Achievements of the Students", and in 1871, with the completion of the new building of St. Thomas Hospital and the expansion of the Nightingale School of Nursing, she advocated that the school should be a home for nurses, a place of training in morals, religion and practice. The students were all resident in the school, with the Sisters as housemistresses, and were encouraged to develop their interests by reading, attending Bible classes and listening to music. She wanted her students to be absolutely devoted and enthusiastic in their professional nursing work, and to be diligent and ethical. The school had 15 students in its first class, and by 1890, after more than 30 years of nursing education, it had trained 1,005 students, most of whom were employed by hospitals in Britain, the United States and Asia to run nursing schools.
Sandra Nightingale's students were spread all over the major hospitals in the UK and far beyond the UK mainland. At the same time, Nightingale-style nursing schools were established in Europe and the United States. The curriculum and organization of the "Nightingale School of Nursing" became the model for many nursing schools in Eurasia. With the increase in the number of trained nurses, the nursing profession developed rapidly in what is known internationally as the Nightingale Era. Prior to Nightingale's nursing reforms, nursing was considered a lowly profession, not respected, with low wages and three meals a day made in the hospital room. The image of the English nurse was that of a coarse, old woman, stupid, dirty, alcoholic and boorish, notorious in hospitals for not being able to do what she was told, let alone carry out any medical tasks, and only slightly above the status of a housemaid. Most hospital wards at the time were one big room, with beds close together, filthy and unkempt, with walls and floors covered in blood and stains and a terrible stench that varied widely from place to place.
The important intention of Nightingale's training in nursing was to make society aware of nursing as a "skill" and to raise it to the status of a "specialized profession". Nightingale is therefore called "the founder of modern nursing", and the subsequent superiority of the nursing staff's character, the improvement of their social status, and the increase of their salary, etc., all became natural results. And Nightingale to complete and improve the work of these methods, mainly three, that is, to lead by example, writing books and preaching and personal practice. Every year on May 12 is the International Nurses' Day, hospitals and nursing schools around the world will hold various activities to commemorate the founder of the nursing profession, the British nursing pioneer Florence Nightingale made outstanding contributions to the cause of nursing.
Florence Nightingale, who came from a wealthy family, chose to devote her life to nursing in spite of her family's and society's disapproval at the time.
Between 1854 and 1856, when the allied armies of Britain, France, and Turkey fought with Tsarist Russia in the Crimea, the death rate of the British army's wounded and sick was as high as 50% because of the lack of nurses and the extremely poor medical conditions. Under these circumstances, Nightingale led the nursing staff to the field hospitals, through the sound hospital management system, improve the quality of care, in just a few months to reduce the casualty mortality rate to 2.2%.
In 1860, Nightingale established the world's first formal nursing school at St. Thomas' Hospital in England. She wrote a number of nursing monographs, including Health Care and Disease Care, Rural Nursing and Health Care, and Nurses' Notes, which made nursing a science. Her schooling ideas were spread from Britain to Europe, America and Asian countries, and Nightingale is known as the originator of the modern nursing profession.
In honor of Nightingale's performance on the development of nursing, her birthday, May 12, as the world's hospitals and nursing schools to commemorate Nightingale held a variety of activities. Initially called "Hospital Day", also known as "Nightingale Day", in China known as "International Nurses Day". On this day, vigorously publicize the nursing work, encourage nurses to learn the humanitarian spirit of saving lives, has become the world's nursing community a major event.
In 1912, the International Committee of the Red Cross decided to award the Nightingale Medal and Certificate of Merit every two years as the highest international honor for nurses of all countries.