Born on the 12th of May year 1820.

I was named after my

birthplace, Florence, Italy. Was educated at home by my father,
aspired to serve others; I wanted to become a nurse. My parents
were opposed to the idea. But despite their disapproval, I went
ahead with the training to becoming a nurse. I later wrote that I
felt suffocated by the vanities and social expectations of my
upbringing. On one occasion, sitting in my parent’s garden, I felt a
call from God to serve others. I resolved to try and follow God’s
will in being of service to others.

In 1844, I enrolled as a nursing student at the Lutheran Hospital in

Kaiserswerth, Germany. In the early 1850s, I returned to London,
where I took a nursing job in a hospital for ailing governesses. My
performance impressed my employer and I was promoted to

superintendent within just a year of being hired. The position

proved challenging as I grappled with a cholera outbreak and
unsanitary conditions conducive to the rapid spread of the disease.
I made it my mission to improve hygiene practices, significantly
lowering the death rate at the hospital in the process.

Then in 1853, I was given my first post reorganizing a small hospital

in Harvey Street, London the Institution for the Care of Sick
Gentlewomen in Distressed Circumstances. As a result of my work
Sidney Herbert the Secretary of War invited me to go on a mission
to soldiers wounded fighting the Russians. With 38 nurses we sailed
to Turkey on 21st of October in 1854. We arrived in November. We
were based at the staff hospital in Constantinople. There were
insufficient beds for the men and conditions were terrible. In the
beginning, the nurses were not even allowed to treat the dying men;
we were only instructed to clean the hospital. But, eventually the

number of casualties became so overwhelming the doctors asked

me and my team of nurses to help. I myself spent every waking
minute caring for the soldiers. In the evenings I moved through the
dark hallways carrying a lamp while making my rounds, ministering
to patient after patient. The soldiers, who I moved Were comforted
by endless supply of compassion, took to calling me as "the Lady
with the Lamp." Others simply called me as "the Angel of the
Crimea." My work reduced the hospital’s death rate by two-thirds.

By the time I returned home I had become a national heroine and

the Queen Victoria rewarded my work by presenting an engraved
brooch that came to be known as the "Nightingale Jewel" and by
granting a prize of $250,000 from the British government. I
decided to use the money to further cause.

I continued to work for the improvement of hospital conditions,

writing to influential people encouraging them to improve hygiene
standards in hospitals. I also founded a training school for nurses at
St Thomas’s hospital, London. It was after my return from the
Crimea that some of my most influential work occurred. I was a

pioneer in using statistical methods to quantify the effect of different

practices. Ironically, I found that some of my own methods of
treating soldiers decreased recovery rates. But, this scientific
approach to dealing with hospital treatment helped to improve
standards and the quality of care.

"If I could give you information of my life it would be to show how

a woman of very ordinary ability has been led by God in strange
and unaccustomed paths to do in His service what He has done in

her. And if I could tell you all, you would see how God has done all,
and I nothing. I have worked hard, very hard, that is all; and I have
never refused God anything”

I’m Florence Nightingale, the lady with the lamp.