She was born into a wealthy English family, on May 12, 1820,
and given the name of the city in which she was born: Florence, Italy….
In Victorian England, women who were “high born” were not
educated, nor did they pursue a career.
Their “career” was to marry well and birth and raise children. Imagine her mother’s horror when Florence
told her that she had been called, by God, to undertake a nursing career.
Not that there really was a profession of nursing at that
time. Or schools of nursing. Or registered nurses. But there certainly was a need for
nurses. With support and encouragement
from the British Secretary of War, Sidney Herbert, Florence and 38 nurses she
had trained went to Crimea to provide care for the sick and wounded soldiers.
Most of those soldiers didn’t have a chance to die from
their war wounds. They died of typhoid,
typhus, cholera or dysentery. Massive
infections were rampant. Conditions were
primitive and unclean. And every night,
after lights out, a lone female figure walked through the hospital corridors,
checking on patients and ministering to their needs. The Lady with the Lamp….
The London Times: “She is a
‘ministering angel’ without any exaggeration in these hospitals, and as her
slender form glides quietly along each corridor, every poor fellow's face
softens with gratitude at the sight of her. When all the medical officers have
retired for the night and silence and darkness have settled down upon those
miles of prostrate sick, she may be observed alone, with a little lamp in her
hand, making her solitary rounds,”
Almost two hundred years later, the nursing profession is
thriving. Schools of nursing produce new
graduate nurses every year. State Boards
of Registered Nursing administer testing, and license those who pass the test
and the background check. State Nurse
Practice Acts govern the body of work that we perform, deciding what we can do
and what we cannot do.
And we can do so much more, two hundred years after Florence
Nightingale. Nurses become Nurse
Practitioners, Registered Nurse First Assistants (in the operating room),
Certified Nurse Anesthetists, Nurse Midwives, and more…
Yet, we owe what we are and what we do to the vision of that
young Victorian English woman, a woman with a calling, and the gumption to make
it work. The Lady with the Lamp. As I sit here, looking at the nursing pin I
received so many years ago, I am reminded of both the dignity and the humility
of nursing.
And I am reminded of Florence Nightingale. On her birthday, May 12, we will once again
celebrate the proud heritage of our profession, International Nurses’ Day.
Cali
A few old photos for you to enjoy:
And a few more current ones:
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