Florence Nightingale 

Iīve read a book about Florence Nightingale, written by L. Du Garde Peach. Itīs based on a real story. 

Florence Nightingale was born in Florence, Italy in 1820. Her parents were English, the father was rich, and they lived in Italy for a short period. Not a long time after Florence birth they left Florence (the city, which Florence Nightingale was named after) and returned to England. Even as a child Florence favorite play was to pretend that her dolls were sick, and that she cured them. She grew up, put her dolls a side, and started to take interest in people instead. Her father was by that time High Sheriff of Hampshire. Famous people came visiting him, like lord Palmstone who later became Prime Minister. At this time the hospitals in England were dirty and badly ran and nursing was not a good profession. Then you can imagine that Florence parents became horrified, when she told them that she wanted to become a nurse. After a few years, when Florence was thirty, she could persuade her parents to let her study nursing. 

Then in 1854, when Florece were 34, the Crimean War broke out. It was Russia fighting against Turkey, supported by England and France. The English soldiers suffered a great deal because the cold climate in, Crimea, the southern parts of Russia. The wounded soldiers had to be taken back first to the coast, and then by the sea to Scutari, in Turkey. Many of the wounded men died on their way back to Turkey. The hospitals in Scutari were old buildings, dirty with not enough beds. So wounded men were lying all over the floor with no blankets, and there were very few doctors. The Minister of War, who already knew Florence, wrote her a letter. Florence should organise nurses that should be sent to Scutari. She worked hard and thought much about the soldiers suffering in Russia. But when Florence and her 38 nurses left London, people looked coldly at them and said that they would soon be back. But in France a wonderful welcome awaited them. They left France in the end of October. It was a windy trip over the Mediterranean. 

They arrived to Scutari 8 days after they left Marseilles. In Scutari, however, the army doctors werenīt to happy to see them. But Florence ordered the nurses to work at once. They scrubbed the floors and washed the bedclothes. The doctors were afraid of all the changes, but the soldiers were greatful. Soon the hospitals were better than those of the France, which the English soldiers, had been envying since the war started. One day the chief army doctor (who had worked against her) told Florence to take her nurses back to England. Then Florence showed him a letter from Queen Victoria, thanking Florence and her nurses. Miss Nightingale decided to visit the battlefield. She wanted to see for herself. Florence work in Crimean was soon done, she returned as a heroin to London in the end of the war. In England she received, from the Queen, a Diamond brooch, designed by Prince Consort, with Crimean and blessed are the merciful engraved upon it. 

Florence Nightingale is known over the whole world. She lived between 1820 and 1910. After her education in Germany she was given the task to lead the care on the allianshospital, during the Crimean War, by the English government. Florence Nightingale lowered the mortality among the wounded to less then the half of what it had been before. Back in England Florence opened Englands first nursingschool