Florence Nightingale： Pioneer of Modern Nursing

Modern-day nursing owes much to Florence Nightingale, who ignited worldwide health care reform in the 19th and 20th century. Known for her night rounds tending to the Crimean War wounded, Nightingale earned the title of Lady with a Lamp. When she died on August 13, 1910, she became the first commoner to have a chapel at Westminster Abbey named in her honor. Besides pioneering hands-on care of patients and her outspoken concerns for radical changes in sanitation, she also established St. Thomas Hospital in England, as well as the Nightingale Training School for nurses. Florence Nightingale believed her profession was a calling from God. She wrote to a friend, For me, religion as laid down by St. John's Gospel, however imperfectly I have lived up to it, was and is enough. Brought to you by Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C.