Florence Nighingale Essay Research Paper Florence Nightingale

Florence Nighingale Essay, Research Paper

Florence Nightingale helped make hospitals cleaner and more efficient, she helped make nursing an important, respected profession, and helped change the world around her into a better, more caring place. Would you like to be in a dirty, smelly hospital with fleas and rats. Would you want to have a nurse care for you who knows nothing about diseases or nursing. Well that s the way it would be–if it wasn t for a woman pioneer set out to improve hospital conditions. That woman was Florence Nightingale.

Florence Nightingale was born on May 12, 1820, in Florence, Italy. She was named after the city that she was born in. Her mother loved gaiety, and Florence, Italy had the reputation of being the gayest city in Europe. Florence had a sister named Parthenope who was born one year prior to Florence s birth. She was born in Naples, Italy. Parthenope was also named after the city she was born in. Parthenope is Greek for Naples. Florence and Parthenope were seldom called by their full names. Florence was called Flo, and Parthenope was called Parthe or just Pop.

Florence and Parthenope s parents were Fanny and William Nightingale. They were both from England. Her father was a Unitarian and a Whig who was involved in the anti-slavery movement. As a child, Florence was very close to her father, who without a son, treated her as his friend and companion. Florence’s mother, Fanny Nightingale, also came from a Unitarian family. Both Florence and Parthenope were born while they were on vacation in Italy.

The Nightingales were a very rich and wealthy family. Flo and Pop grew up with a very privileged childhood. They had many gardens to play in, ponies to ride, and numerous cats, dogs, and birds to take care of. They lived in a large house in a town called Derbyshire, near London. They called it “Embley Park.” They also had a summer home that they called “Lea Hurst.”

Even with all of this, Flo was not happy. Flo was not an ordinary child. She was not naughty like every other child. Instead, she was passionate, loving, strong-headed, and miserable. She craved sympathy. She was a very cryptic child. Florence thought that she was not like other people. She was scared that other children might discover her secret. Florence was not happy living the rich life that she was. She was always in discontent. To escape from this, she day-dreamed all of the time.

Florence was very pretty like her mother. She had a very vivid and active imagination. She would day dream all of the time. She imagined herself as a monster and as a great heroine. Flo and Pop were educated by their father. Their education was very thorough and classical. Florence was very smart, and was especially good at math.

Besides the fact that she loved to daydream, Florence loved to write. She was always writing in her diary. When her diary was not with her, she wrote on small scraps of papers or anything that she could get her hands on to write down her thoughts! On February 7, 1837, when Florence was 17, she wrote, “God spoke to me and called me to His service.” She had no idea what this service might be. God s call to her was ambiguous, but she did know that she was to do something.

Many men liked Florence, and the man that she liked had asked her to marry him. She turned him down, as she did many others, because she did not want to live her life like her mother lived hers. If she were to marry that man, she would have had to spend her time “making society and arranging domestic things.” Her mother was very upset with her decision to turn him down. She was always looking for a husband for Flo. Early on in her life, Florence knew that she was not an ordinary person. She wanted to do something that would make a difference.

In the 1840s, people in England were hungry. It was a very hard time for them. Prisons and hospitals were overcrowded and dirty. During this time, Florence brought food to the hungry, medicine to the sick, and clothing to the cold and naked. In 1844 Florence was twenty four years old. She decided that her calling was to work in a hospital. She was to help other people by being a nurse. She wrote in her diary that it was “God s work for me.”

When Florence told her parents her plans to become a nurse, they were horrified because nursing was associated with working class women. They would not let Florence carry out her calling. Hospitals then were very dirty and smelly. To relive their pain, many patients drank whiskey. Some of the nurses drank whiskey along with the injured and sick soldiers. The nurses then didn t know much about disease. There were close to no servants to cook and clean the hospitals.

Because her parents didn t approve of her plans, Florence was devastated. She became depressed because she could not do what God wanted her to do. She hardly slept. She lost weight. On December 5, 1845, in her diary, Florence wrote, “I am dust and nothing This morning I felt my soul would pass away in tears.” Florence became very sick. In all of this Florence was determined to carry out God s wish and didn t give up hope.

In 1849 her parents allowed her to go abroad and study the European hospital system. In 1850 she began training in nursing at the Institute of Saint Vincent de Paul in Alexandria, Egypt. In June of the year 1851 Florence s parents allowed her to go to nursing school.