Florence Nightingale 1870 LevyAn English social reformer, statistician, and the creator of modern nursing, Florence Nightingale was born on 12 May 1820 and died on 13 August 1910. When Nightingale organized to care for injured soldiers at Constantinople during the Crimean War, sh gained notoriety as a nurse manager and educator. By raising cleanliness and living standards, she drastically decreased death rates. In particular, as "The Lady with the Lamp" visited injured soldiers at night, Nightingale gave nursing a positive reputation and emerged as an iconic figure of Victorian society. Even Nightingale's critics accept the importance of her later work in advancing nursing for women and claim that the media inflated her efforts during the Crimean War. In 1860, she founded her nursing college at St. Thomas' Hospital in London, establishing the foundation for contemporary professional nursing. Now a part of King's College London, it was the world's first secular nursing school. The Florence Nightingale Medal, the highest international accolade a nurse can get, and the annual International Nurses Day, observed on her birthday, were named in her honor in commemoration of her pioneering work in nursing. Read More Read Less