Florence Nightingale:

A Compassionate Exemplar in History

Written By: Natalie Dalton
Union Institute & University

According to Meriam-Webster compassion is defined as feeling or showing concern for

someone who is sick, hurt, poor, etc.: having or showing compassion. There are people in
history that have shown much compassion for others in many aspects of our daily lives. These
people are considered to be compassionate exemplars. One person that is a famous
compassionate exemplar is Florence Nightingale, she made strides in the medical community
when she was alive and her legacy has lived on since.
Florence was born May 12th, 1820 in Florence, Italy. Florence is the youngest of two
children and the daughter of an elite socialite, Frances nightingale. Francess father was a
merchant and this made it to be that Frances was into going to social events and being the center
of attention. Florences father, William Shore Nightingale also was one for the social life. He was
a landowner and inherited two estates. One was inherited before Florence turned 5 and she was
raised on the same estate. Rather than being a socialite like her parents, she was one to stay in the
back and not say much. She would butt heads with her mother, but she still had much respect for
her mother and wanted to please her mother at whatever the cost.
During Florences adolescence and young adult years were spent doing what she really
enjoyed. She was highly involved in philanthropy and found that she enjoyed tending to the ill
and the poor that were in the area surrounding the family estate. Florence found out at age 16
that she wanted to be a nurse and that she felt it was her true calling to help the less fortunate.
She told her parents of the decision to become a nurse and her parents forbid her form becoming
a nurse. They wanted her to follow in the steps of other women at her age and her social
standpoint. She was expected to marry a man of means and not perform menial labor, as nursing
was considered at the time. She was proposed to at the age of 17, she denied the proposal
because he stimulated her intellectually and romantically, but her nature would not be enough for

him. In 1844 Florence decided, against her parents ideas, to enroll herself at Lutheran Hospital of
Pastor Fliedner in Kaiserswerth, Germany.
Once Florence finished her studies around 1850, she returned to London to work. She
found a job as a nurse at a Middlesex hospital caring for aging governesses. Just after a year of
working there Florence was promoted to superintendent for her hard work. There was added
stress to the job that she was doing because there was an outbreak of cholera and the unsanitary
conditions in the hospital made the cholera run rampant. At this point it was her mission to fix
the sanitation concerns at the hospital. This was a difficult challenge for her, but she managed to
make a dent in the death rate at the time. Florences health suffered because of her work during
this time.
In 1853 the Crimean war broke out and there were any injuries during that time. Some of
the trouble with healthcare on the battlefield came from a history of female nurses that
performed poorly for the soldiers. However, just one year later Florence was asked to make up a
corps of nurses to assist in the war. She was up for the challenge and found a total of 34 nurses
and they were sent out to Crimean just a couple of days later. When Florence and her team
arrived to assist she was not prepared for what she was going to see. She knew of the unsanitary
conditions but never knew it could get worse than the hospital she had worked at. Upon arrival
the hospital that she was at was sitting on a cesspool. There were patients who were lying in their
own bodily fluids, there were patients on stretchers everywhere, and there were bugs and rodents
all over the place. Due to the conditions there was also a low supply of supplies, such as
bandages. The soldiers started to die faster and it became conditions such as typhoid and cholera
that took their lives instead of injuries from battle.

Florence was inspired by the conditions to get right to work and try to make the
conditions better for the soldiers. She asked the patients that were the least ill to help clean the
hospital by washing down the walls and the floors with brushes. During this time she would tend
to the soldiers anytime that she is able to possibly get to it. Florence would also tend to the
soldiers at night with a lamp. Because of that she was called, The Lady with the Lamp and
some called her The angle of Crimea. Florence made the greatest difference in the health
system we know today during this time. While working at the hospital she started many new
things including, lowering the death rate by two thirds, offering personalized meals for patients
that had dietary restrictions, she established laundry facilities so patients would have clean
linens, and she also developed a classroom and library for the patients to use during their stay.
After seeing and experiencing the conditions in Crimea Florence wrote an 803 page
report named Notes on Matters Affecting the Health, Efficiency and Hospital Administration of
the British Army. This reported the conditions over in the war zone and also mentioned the
practices that she initiated. This report established the Royal Commission for the Health of the
Army in 1857. Florence was starting to make people look at the healthcare at this time and that it
was a real time for change. Florence stayed over in the war zone until the war settled down; she
then returned to her hometown and was awarded an engraved broch, which was given by the
Queen. It is now known as the Nightingale Jewel. Florence has never been one for the social
aspect of things, such as this honor. Along with the broch she was also awarded $250,000.
Instead of keeping the money for herself, she put it toward her efforts for better welfare of
patients. Florence put it towards the establishment of St. Thomas Hospital and out the funds
towards the education of future nurses. After what Florence did and became known for the idea
of nursing was not considered menial labor anymore, people of higher social class did not see as

it as being below them, there were many high class women who went to school for nursing
because of Florence.
While Florence was in Crimea she contracted Crimean fever and had complications from
it the rest of her life. She became bedridden and homebound. This did not stop her from doing
what she wanted to do. Florence was constantly called upon for advice on how to make the
conditions better for the patients. Florence ended up passing away in August of 1910. After her
passing her legacy lived on, there are many young women who aspire to follow in her footsteps.
One thing that Florence did not want was a large funeral, there were many people that wanted to
have a big celebration to celebrate her life and all that she did, however with the way that
Florence was not one to be into big social gatherings she wanted a simple funeral and then buried
with her family.
Florence has been recognized ever since she started fighting for the rights of patients and
the fight for sanitation. There is now a museum at the site of the original nightingale school for
nursing and it offers guests to see different artifacts for her life, such as the lamp that she used
when making those late night checks with soldiers and there is also the life story of Florence in
the museum.
When it comes to Florences life and the work that she did you can look back at her life
from the beginning and see where her passion came from. During the start of her life she was in a
high social class and continued to be considered this the rest of her life, however she did not like
the attention and stayed in the shadows. It would seem almost that if she had went the path that
her parents wanted her to go in that she may have never been a nurse and done such great things
for healthcare and patient welfare. When looking at Florences life I am able to see the pattern of

wanting to help people from the beginning. As mentioned earlier, she wanted to help people
when she was just 16 and knew by that time that she wanted to be a nurse. I see it as being that
she was destined to be a nurse form when she was born, in a way it was almost as if was going
against her parents thoughts and plans, but ended up do such great things by going against them.
Florence Nightingale was one of the first people that I thought of when reading the words
compassionate exemplar. Florence was able to put the welfare of the patients and the soldiers
above her own health and allow the people to be taken better care of. She ended up falling ill
herself during the time she was caring for others. When she developed Crimean Fever she was
only in her 30s, she ended up living till her 90s and dealt with the complications of the illness
all those years. The reason that I choose her was because of this, I see that she would rather die
trying to make sure that patients made it out of the hospital through the front door instead of the
morgue. This is a true definition of someone putting others before herself.
When it comes to this case of Florence and the course I can make some connections. To
start off with I can compare her life to the short film that we viewed about the people that would
house and feed the Jewish people from the Nazis. I compare the two because of the idea of
helping someone else and not worrying about what others say or do. When it came to the people
that housed the Jewish people they mentioned that they did it just because it was the right thing
to do, there was nothing that scared them about what they were doing. If they were caught then
they could be in big legal trouble. On the other hand, Florence was not up for possible legal
issues, but she did have the public that started to view nurses as a lower class and they were not
to do anything like she managed to do. This is the best comparison that I can think of because of
the principle of what was being done.

Along with this case I also can see that there are not many comparisons that can be made.
We discussed different cases and stories of heroic and compassionate things that people have
done. I believe that Florence is on a different level from what we have talked about. She helped
the welfare of everyone in a way, from the present to the future of healthcare. If it were not for
Florence there would probably not be as many procedures in place at hospitals and healthcare
facilities that there are today. I also think that there would not be as many polices in place when
it comes to the soldiers that defend us all, from the United States to other countries. I believe that
Florence helped shape what we know as VA hospitals today.
This course has taught me so much. I can almost not put it all into words of what there
has been taught. Even though there were readings and videos and online discussion and not face
to face interaction that might be expected with compassion I still received a great lesson. With
the course being online and having discussions online it made the compassion studies come up to
this day and age. I know that I now know more about myself from this course. There was the
week at we discussed self-criticism and I noticed that I am really bad about that. I never really
noticed it, however after the discussion I made the connection to my life and I then found that I
did not have to be that way. Ever since I have become a lot less hard on myself in the time since
that discussion.
During the course I found many connections with my own life. For instance, I relate to
the case of the Jewish people that were hiding from the Nazis. Not because of being Jewish or
anything like that, but because I know that I would do what the people did that housed the Jewish
people. I know that I would do something like that and not think of the consequences because it
is just the right thing to do. I also relate with the My Hero Project video about the movement I
am a girl. I can relate to this one because I am a woman and I know the issues that come up when

a person is a woman. I also feel great emotion for the girls in other countries that are not looked
at as just everyone else. Most girls in other countries only go to school for a short time and then
they are expected to be home makers and tend to the children and not do farther with their
education.
Overall, in this course I felt that I can really and truly relate to the stories and the readings
because I am a compassionate person and I know that there are many things that I already do and
that I currently do. I also feel a connection to Florence Nightingale. She was a pioneer in
healthcare and the welfare of patients. She was able to break through the social norm and
become a nurse and now nurses are looked at as being great people and they are not looked at as
being lower than other jobs and that they are important. She also was able to set the standard of
patient care and how people should be treated while they are in a healthcare facility and that it
should be above the way things are elsewhere. Florence Nightingale is a true compassionate
exemplar in history.

References:

Florence Nightingale. (n.d.). Retrieved October 20, 2015, from

http://www.biography.com/people/florence-nightingale-9423539

Florence Nightingale Museum. (n.d.). Retrieved October 20, 2015, from

http://www.florence-nightingale.co.uk/the-collection/biography.html

Florence Nightingale (1820 1910). (n.d.). Retrieved October 20, 2015, from
http://www.victorianweb.org/history/crimea/florrie.html