The Lady of the Lamp"If there were no one dissatisfied with what they have, the world would never get anything better." Here are some of the most heartbreaking and enlightening words of perhaps the most influential nurse of all time, Florence Nightingale. She was a pioneer for women everywhere, because nurses at the time were neither female nor trained, and she broke barriers of both. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Florence Nightingale was born in 1820 in Italy to politically liberal parents who believed in the education and abolition of women. Her father was a wealthy British landowner, which allowed her to visit hospitals in London. At the time, nursing was an occupation that required little more than simply giving medicine to the sick, and was more or less left to the lower and working classes. In her travels, however, Florence noticed the nuns' health practices, which inspired her to become a nurse. She began studying in 1851 and within two years was given the position of superintendent for the Hospital for Invalid Gentlewomen in London. Interestingly, she had rejected a high-class gentleman's proposal to make this dream come true. This shows that back then, just like today, women could do things perfectly without a man. In the same year the Crimean War broke out. Hundreds of British soldiers died, but not in battle. They were dying from diseases contracted in hospitals. Florence Nightingale was recruited by the Minister of War to go and work in the hospitals where soldiers were taken, the most famous of which was called Scutari. Unfortunately, there was still much prejudice against Nightingale working in hospitals, and hospital doctors considered it a personal insult that she criticized their working conditions. Nightingale sent word back to London and got monetary support for her goals, and the hospital death rate dropped from 40% to 2%. Patients called her "Lady of the Lamp" because only she was allowed in the inpatient ward at night. While working in the hospitals, she had kept records and charts and charts and charts of every kind of statistics she could get her. hands forward. He later used them to campaign for the improvement of hospital conditions in front of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, which led to the creation of a military medical school in 1859. Keep in mind: this is just one example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay Our world has had the opportunity to make huge strides in all ways: in technology, in communication, in the medical field, in transportation, in science. Yet, as Florence Nightingale rightly states, the only way this was possible is because people saw a need that needed to be met, and they met it. While revolutionizing nursing and healthcare practices in hospitals was an absolutely vital need, the war continued to kill more and more men. With greater progression in keeping soldiers alive came greater progression in killing methods. Industrialism looks different everywhere, but in terms of war it meant that simply to keep up with the times it was absolutely necessary for someone like Florence Nightingale to come along. If he hadn't done so, many more lives would have been lost and sooner or later someone would have arrived to improve the conditions of the hospital.