#Who established a war hospital code

She had been shocked by the conditions in the hospital and began to campaign to improve the quality of nursing in military hospitals. Both had approached Nightingale to work in her hospital at Scutari, but Seacole was turned down, and Davis was one of a party who were sent to Scutari but was not wanted by Nightingale.įlorence returned after the war as a national heroine. Other women who nursed during the Crimean war are Mary Seacole and Elizabeth (Betsy) Davis. From Marseilles, they took the mail steamer “Vectis” to Scutari. It took Florence and her nurses 13 days to reach Scutari, they travelled by ship to Boulogne, then overland to Marseilles where they had a break in the journey. When all the medical officers have retired for the night, and silence and darkness have settled down upon these miles of prostrate sick, she may be observed alone, with a little lamp in her hand, making her solitary rounds.” “She is a ‘ministering angel’ without any exaggeration in these hospitals, and as her slender form glides quietly along each corridor every poor fellow’s face softens with gratitude at the sight of her. The work of Florence Nightingale and her nurses set the standards for modern day nursing.įlorence Nightingale has frequently been described as “the lady with the lamp” and this quote relates to an article published about her in The Times newspaper 8th February 1855, which reads: This greatly improved the medical and sanitary arrangements at Scutari reduced the death rate. To ensure that the wounded were kept clean and fed well, Florence Nightingale set up laundries to wash linen and clothing and kitchens to cook food. This was when the Minister for War, Sidney Herbert, stepped in and asked Florence Nightingale to arrange and take charge of nurses to send to the war. A reporter for the Times newspaper sent back several reports about the hospitals, and people in Britain started demanding something was done about them. They were not ready for how many soldiers would be injured, and this was one of the reasons why the hospitals were in such a bad state. When war broke out in the Crimea in 1854, the government expected it to last several months, it actually lasted 2 years. When she returned she became the superintendent of a hospital for gentlewomen in Harley Street, London. When Florence told her parents they were not happy as in their view, this was not a respectable profession.Įventually, her father gave his permission for her to go to Germany to train in 1844 in a hospital in Kaiserwerth, Germany. She came from a wealthy background was born in Italy and named after the city of her birth.Īs she grew up, she decided that she wanted to help the sick and injured, and wanted to become a nurse. Can you find the statues of Florence Nightingale Lord Sidney Herbert? The Crimea Memorial?įlorence Nightingale (1820-1910) was a British nurse, social reformer and statistician.Photograph of Waterloo Place, London, viewed from the East showing the Crimean War memorial, and statues of Florence Nightingale and Sidney Herbert of Lea © Wikimedia Commons What was the old name for The National Archives?.When could this document to be seen by the public for the first time?.Can you explain or find out how these three statues were connected?.What two other statues were to be placed nearby?.In what part of London was the statue of Florence Nightingale situated?.

#Who established a war hospital code

What does the code tell you about what this file might be about?.

Can you spot the code ‘WORK’ on this document?.This file is from the government Ministry of Works which has information about the planning, building and up keep of royal buildings and parks, public buildings and deals with the protection and care of ancient monuments and statues. Use the sources in this lesson to explore why Florence Nightingale is considered a significant figure and the founder of modern nursing.įront cover of a file about a statue for Florence Nightingale, Catalogue ref: WORK 20/67 Florence Nightingale realised that if the doctors were going to let her nurses to work then they had to do a very good job. When she arrived at the hospital, army doctors there did not want the nurses helping. Often more men died from these diseases than from their injuries.

These conditions meant that they often caught other diseases like typhus, cholera and dysentery. The army base hospital at Scutari in Constantinople was unclean, poorly supplied with bandages and soap and the patients did not have proper food or medicine.įlorence Nightingale found that wounded and dying men were sleeping in overcrowded, dirty rooms often without blankets. Britain was at war with Russia in a conflict called the Crimean War (1854-1856). On the 4 November 1854, Florence Nightingale arrived in Turkey with a group of 38 nurses from England.