Full name: Florence Nightingale Born: 12th May 1820 Place of Birth: Florence, Italy Occupation: Superintendent Nurse Died: 13th August 1910

Florence Nightingale, often referred to as the founder of modern nursing or the 'lady with the lamp' was born on 12th May 1820 and named after the Italian city she was born in.  Florence was born into an upper middle class family and was raised on her family's estate at Lea Hurst in Derbyshire.  Florence was given an intense, rich education and her family believed that nursing was an unsuitable job for her considering her privileged upbringing. 

Against her family's wishes, Florence spent three months training as a nurse at the Institute of Protestant Deaconesses at Kaiserwerth in Germany and visited various hospitals in a number of European cities where she gathered details of each hospital's conditions and methods in nursing.  On her return, Florence became Super Intendent of the hospital for Invalid Gentlewomen in Harley Street.  In 1844, Nightingale returned to London to take a nursing job in a Middlesex hospital for governesses and was promoted to super intendent after just one year.  Nightingale successfully lowered the death rate and improve hygiene conditions, which she achieved successfully.

In 1854, Florence was commissioned by the Minister of War, Sidney Herbert, to help reform the medical facilities and care on the front line in the Crimean War by becoming Super Intendent of a team of nurses in military hospitals in Scutari in Turkey.  Herbert expected Nightingale to discontinue the suffering experienced by soldiers and she became well known as 'the lady with the lamp', due to her famous ward night checks. 

Nightingale successfully improved the conditions in military hospitals and reduced the number of deaths dramatically.  Whilst in the Crimea, Nightingale produced the reprot 'Notes on Matters Affecting the Health, Efficiency and Hospital Administration of the British Army', which proposed reforms and prompted the establishment of the Royal Commission for the Health of the Army. 

On her return to Britain, Nightingale founded the Nightingale training school for professional nursing at St Thomas' Hospital in London, which gave the nurses new ideas and strategies to implement in other hospitals across the country once their training was complete.

Florence's revolutionary nursing techniques were published in the book 'Notes for Nursing' and her influential strategies and plans are still used in hospitals today.  International Nurses Day is celebrated every year on Florence's birthday.  As a result of Nightingale's training schools for nurses, in 1877, the war office decided to decided to increase the number of female nurses in military hospitals.