and virtually no sanitation. More soldiers were dying of diseases in the hospitals than
were being killed on the battlefield.
Florence Nightingale led a group of volunteer nurses to the front lines in what is now
Turkey. The soldiers there described her as an “angel,” and nicknamed her The Lady with
the Lamp due to her late-night visits to comfort the sick and dying. The story of this
wealthy woman who put aside riches and comfort to risk her life in filthy conditions
became a national sensation in Britain, and inspired many people to follow her example.
After the war, Florence Nightingale used her skills in advanced mathematics to determine
why so many soldiers had died. She realized that sanitation was the key to saving lives,
and began to campaign for cleaner conditions in hospitals. She invented a new kind of pie
chart, the “Nightingale Rose Diagram,” to prove her point to politicians and bureaucrats
who didn’t understand statistics.
Florence Nightingale took advantage of her newly acquired fame to raise funds and set up
the world’s first official training program for nurses. She is considered the founder of
modern nursing.
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