A Pioneer in Nursing: Florence Nightingale

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A Pioneer in Nursing: Florence Nightingale Florence Nightingale shall never be forgotten, she is considered to be the pioneer of the nursing profession. She has contributed many assets to the field of nursing as well as drastically improved the past standards of hospital sanitization. Nightingale was born in Florence, Italy on May 12, 1820 to Fanny and William Nightingale (Zemlicka 48). When Nightingale and her family returned to England in 1821 (Zemlicka 48) it was the beginning of a sickly childhood. There are theories that Florence Nightingale’s childhood illnesses may have been the result of lead poisoning emanating from the smelter close to the Nightingales’ Derbyshire home (Bostridge 23). Not only did Nightingale spend time as a child visiting and tending to the ill in the neighboring village to her parent’s home, she tended to family members as well. Even as a child Nightingale documented letters, some containing the progress of the ill she tended to and their journey to recovery. When Nightingale’s cousin, Bonny, fell ill to the point that his doctors could do nothing for him and eventually died, Nightingale’s concern for the sick and in pain grew immensely. She soon realized that there were many people throughout the world suffering from sickness and pain and she felt compelled to do all she could to help. At the age of sixteen it had become clear to her that she wanted to help the ill, she believed it to be the will of God that she was to serve as a nurse. As a woman of Nightingale’s social stature her parents disapproved of her requests to gain any training as a nurse, in fact they forbade it. At the time in society, nurses were stereotyped as the lower classes with social standing little better than prostitutes, naturally Nightingale was determined to change that. Nightingale however did not let her parents’ disapproval hinder her in her determination
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