¶ … born in Florence, Italy on May 12, 1820, and she died in on August 13, 1910.

Probably her biggest influence was her father, William, who urged her to get an education and find a career she enjoyed at a time when most women were not educated and did not have careers. However, he did not approve of her career choice, and that was a great disappointment to her. Her mathematics tutor, James Sylvester, was also an influence in her early life, because she found that she enjoyed mathematics and was good at it. She became known for her career as a nurse, but was also an excellent statistician who received awards for her calculations about sickness and death. She fought very hard to clean up unsanitary conditions in hospitals where she worked, and she was one of the first people to recognize that unsanitary conditions could lead to illness and death. Elizabeth Blackwell was the first American female doctor in the U.S. And she was teaching at St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London. Blackwell encouraged her to train and become a nurse.

She created a training school for nurses at St. Thomas' Hospital in London, and it was one of the first in the world dedicated to women and their careers. She was also a statistician and developed forms for hospitals to use to track patients who recovered and who did not. This was the first time that standardized forms had been developed for hospitals to all track patient outcomes the same way.

She became very famous for her career and her revolutionary ways of doing things. She organized nurses to help sick patients during the Crimean War. People called her the "lady with the lamp" because she felt her career was a 24-hour profession and that women in her profession had to work day and night taking care of others. She was the very first woman to win the British Order of Merit, which was given to her in 1907. She wrote four books about her profession and was a recognized expert who raised nursing to a higher level, because she convinced people it was a noble and very caring profession.

References

Editor. "Florence Nightingale." Spartacus Education. 14 Oct. 2005. 3 Nov. 2005.

< http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/REnightingale.htm

Riddle, Larry. "Florence Nightingale." Agnes Scott College. 3 June 1999. 3 Nov. 2005.

< http://www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/women/nitegale.htm >