Born in a wealthy, educated, and respectable British family, Florence Nightingale broke free from standards of Victorian women, who lived to marry, bear children, and tend the family [5]. Today, she is known as the founder of modern nursing and an icon in Victorian culture. Her mission was to provide attentive care for patients. Her legacy in nursing is acknowledged through several honors: Nightingale Pledge, an oath sworn in by new nurses [2]; Florence Nightingale Medal, the highest international honor in recognition for distinguished nurses; and International Nurses Day, which is celebrated on her birthday [1]. Her lifelong service to patients, reforms in healthcare and sanitation, setting a standard for future nurses, and upheave the reputation of the nursing profession would break societal norms for the better.

Florence Nightingale was born in 1820 to a wealthy, known British family. Because their father value women’s education highly, Nightingale and her sisters studied an array of subjects: mathematics, Italians, German, literature, and philosophy [4]. Young Florence had a talent for collecting and analyzing data, which would later be critical in her later career. In 1838, when her father went on tour in Europe, Florence was introduced to Mary Clark, a renowned writer on the history of women's rights. From interactions with Clark, she learned that men and women can be equals and women can be intellectuals. When she was seventeen, Florence believed her life was destined to lifelong service to nursing because of “God’s callings” [6]. However, 17th to late 19th century was the “dark age” of nursing and nurses had a terrible reputation: immoral, poor, worked in unsanitary conditions, and usually taken by servants or widows to support themselves [6]. Given the respectable and well-connected status of the Nightingales, her decision to study nursing was faced with strong opposition; her mother and sister wanted her to get married and have a family, which she objected. Eventually, after her persistence, her father sent her to Germany to properly study nursing for three months [4]. After, she went to France for extra training. By 1853, she was respected within the nursing communities and became the superintendent for a hospital in London [4].

Her most known contribution came from her service during the Crimean War when she was known as the “Lady with the Lamp”. Crimean War broke out in 1854 between the British Empire and the Russian Empire for the control of the Ottoman Empire [4]. The conditions of injured British soldiers were in a terrible state; there were thousands of British soldiers injured and not enough hospital beds to care for them [1]. Given the terrible reputation of nurses, officials were originally hesitant to hire female nurses, but eventually the situation got worse, and Nightingale received notice from Secretary of War to arrange a group of nurses to treat in a military hospital in Constantinople. When they arrived, most doctors were unwilling to work with them [3]. As the number of casualties increased and since the nurse bought nutritious foods and supplies, their help became indispensable [1]. Because the military hospital was built on top of contaminated water, had a lack of ventilation, and defective sewers, many soldiers were dying of preventative diseases like typhoid and cholera than from war itself. Nightingale got to work immediately to treat the soldiers and sanitized the hospital to improve the living environment for the soldiers. In addition, she provided a station for food, entertainment, and laundry to improve the soldiers’ psychological health. Because of her attentive and devoted care for soldiers, she was known as the “Lady with a Lamp”, which was later widely popularized through literature, art, and theatrical works. However, her work did not entirely fix the situation and it was not until the Sanitary Commission was sent six months later to fix the contaminated drinking water problem that the situation improved [3]. Seeing the horrid situation that soldiers faced, from lack of nutrition, lack of clean air, overcrowding, and overworking, she was determined to improve sanitation and health practices when the war was over. Nevertheless, she greatly improved the physical and psychological health of the soldiers; within six months, the death rate drastically dropped from 40% to 2% [1]. After a year and a half, she returned home and was greeted by her celebrity status back home. Her humble work was awarded a prize of $250,000 from the British government and an engraved brooch of honor from Queen Victoria [4]. However, her contributions did not stop there.

Aside from being a devoted nurse, Nightingale was also gifted in statistics. Because of the appalling conditions in the Crimean War, she advocated for better health practices for the British army by presenting her data and findings with the Royal Commission on Health of the Army. Her talent in statistics allowed her to present understandable data. She is often credited for developing polar area diagram (Nightingale Rose Diagram), which was used to present patient mortality in military hospitals [4,7]. After her discussions with Queen Victoria, better health advancements were granted for British armies [6]. Because of her well-presented graphical representation of statistical data, she became the first female member of the Royal Statistical Society in 1859. One of her most outstanding works were her efforts towards sanitation in India's rural areas, where contaminated water, overcrowding, and poor ventilation are prevalent problems [8]. Because of the similarities between the Crimean War circumstances and problems in India's rural areas, she strongly advocated for sanitation reforms and made comprehensive statistical reports to validate this. Her struggle for a cleaner world would not be possible without her vision and advocacy.

Most of her later life was spent on continuing to spread her vision for nursing and advocacy for proper healthcare practices. Through her experiences from nursing school and the Crimean war, she wrote a book, Notes on Nursing: What it is and What it is not, which laid out values and principles expected of nurses; their mission should be guided by compassion, diligence towards hospital administration, and effective care [6]. They should aim to strive for sanitation, clean air, ventilation in workplaces and attentiveness and patience in trained nurses. During the war, a conscription fund was set up under Nightingale’s name; she decided to use this fund to open a nursing school and continue her efforts to ensure quality nurses [6]. In 1860, a Nightingale Training School at St. Thomas’ Hospital was established. Her efforts had widely transformed the nursing system in Britain from the 1860s onwards [3]. Her efforts had made nursing a respected and professional job that requires proper training and ensure quality care for patients.

Florence Nightingale widely elevated the nursing profession that we respect today, and her influences continue to live on. Although ill and bedridden for much of her later life, she continues to advocate for better healthcare, quality nursing practices, and sanitation around the world. Her status would be an inspiration for many women and a catalyst for women’s reform later. Through her experiences with her mother and sister, she did not agree with their lifestyles because despite their high status and education, their lethargic lifestyle due to conformities with societal norms had obstructed them to make contributions for people in society. She proved that women’s role is not only within the household but are also capable of being heroines.

Works Cited
[1] Alexander, Kerri Lee. “Florence Nightingale." National Women's History Museum. National Women's History Museum, 2019. Date accessed 14 July 2020. https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/florence-nightingale
[2] Crathern, Alice Tarbell. "For the Sick". In Detroit Courage Was the Fashion: The Contribution of Women to the Development of Detroit from 1701 to 1951. Wayne University Press, 1953. pp. 80–81.
[3] Edge, Simon. “Florence Nightingale: the medical superstar”. Express, 22 April 2010. Accessed 14 July 2020. https://www.express.co.uk/expressyourself/170640/Florence-Nightingale-the-medical-superstar
[4] History.com Editors. “Florence Nightingale”. History. Accessed 14 July 2020. https://www.history.com/topics/womens-history/florence-nightingale-1
[5] Murray, Margaret. “Idealized View of the Victorian Woman”. Lehigh Univeristy, 2016. Accessed 14 July 2020. https://scalar.lehigh.edu/mame16---anthology/idealized-vision-of-the-victorian-woman
[6] Reynolds-Finley Historical Library. “The Life of Florence Nightingale.” The University of Alabama at Birmingham. Accessed 14 July 2020. https://library.uab.edu/locations/reynolds/collections/florence-nightingale/life 
[7] Cohen, I. Bernard. "Florence Nightingale". Scientific American, vol. 250, no. 3, 1984, pp.128–137.
[8] Professional Nursing Practice: Concepts and perspective, Koernig & Hayes, sixth edition, 2011, p. 100.