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It is always inspiring to learn about fascinating people in history who rose up against adversity and had the courage to follow their dreams. It is even more inspiring to learn how these ordinary people changed the way we look at something./p>

One of these amazing and truly heroic individuals was a woman named Florence Nightingale. She was in her time a reformer, pioneer and most importantly a humanitarian. She made significant improvements to the field of nursing and reformed the sanitation conditions in hospitals.

She also developed new techniques of statistical analysis and revolutionized the idea that social events could be measured and analyzed using statistical analysis-I bet you never though that math could be this important! Read on and learn about the life and history of this amazing woman.

Florence Nightingale was born on May 12, 1820 in Florence, Italy (now you know where her name came from-she was named after the city of her birth) to a wealthy and well-educated English family. She soon moved to Derbyshire, England where she was raised. Remember that during this time most women did not receive any type of education. Most women during that time married and cared for their husbands and children. Florence, however, saw a different life for herself. Her father, William Nightingale, believed that all women should receive an education. He taught his two daughters a variety of subjects ranging from science and mathematics to history and philosophy. Florence also became very interested in caring for the sick during her youth so she read up on hospital care, sanitation conditions in hospitals and public health. She also began to care for sick pets and servants whenever she had the chance. Pretty inspiring and ambitious for a young girl raised in a wealthy family, huh?!

At seventeen years of age, she believed she was called into service by God “to do something toward lifting the load of suffering from the helpless and miserable.” She traveled throughout Europe during her early years and learned many languages including Greek, Latin, French and Italian. She also visited many of the hospitals in these cities and took many notes on the sanitary conditions and care delivered in these hospitals. She also had an interest in mathematics and believed that you could use math to study social events. She was once quoted as saying “To understand God’s thoughts, we must study statistics, for these are the measure of his purpose.”

In 1849, she traveled to Europe to study the European hospital system. One year later, in 1850, she traveled to Alexandria, Egypt and began studying nursing at the Institute of Saint Vincent de Paul. In 1853, she became superintendent of the Hospital for Invalid Gentlewomen in London. She continued to visit hospitals and study their conditions…and on one trip she met Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Herbert who were also interested in reforming the hospital systems in Europe. In 1854, the Crimean War broke out (If you’re interested read up and study about the Crimean War-it was basically England, France and Turkey who were allied against Russia). Florence wanted to help the wounded during this war so she wrote a letter to her friend Sir Sidney Herbert who was also the Secretary of War during this time and asked if she could help.

Coincidentally, he wrote a letter to her at the same time asking if she would lead a group of nurses to Scutari to care for the wounded soldiers. Isn’t it interesting how these things happen sometimes?

In 1854 she led 38 nurses and traveled to Scutari to help the wounded soldiers. When they arrived they found the hospital conditions to be unbearable. Many of the wounded did not have beds and were lying on the bare ground. There was a shortage of supplies and decent meals. The sanitary conditions were unbearable. Florence and her nurses changed these conditions. They set up a kitchen, fed the wounded from their own supplies, dug latrines for sanitation, and asked for help from the wives of the wounded. They were then able to properly care for the ill and wounded. It was also here where her math skills came in handy (remember-math is important!). She showed with statistics that if the sanitary conditions were improved, the death rate would drop.

Within a few months after Florence and her nurses arrived at Scutari (the location where the wounded and ill soldiers of the Crimean War were taken), the death rate dropped significantly. Florence also cared for the social welfare of the soldiers and would visit them during the night after everyone else had gone to sleep. She was then referred to as “The Lady with the Lamp” because of these frequent night visits. She became a true hero to the soldiers and everyone back home in England.

In 1860, after the war, Florence founded the Nightingale School and Home for Nurses at Saint Thomas’s Hospital in London. This was the first school of professional nursing and was the beginning of many new nursing schools to come.

Florence Nightingale was truly inspirational and changed the face of nursing from a mostly untrained profession to a highly skilled and well-respected medical profession with crucial responsibilities. She also wrote several books for nurses so they could practice using her high standards. She was truly amazing! Hopefully her story will inspire many young men and women (maybe even you!) and remind them that they can do anything they want.