Florence Nightingale- A Pioneer in Human Healthcare and in the Idea of Orphanages
Florence Nightingale was born into a wealthy British family at the Villa Colombaia in Florence, Italy. She was inspired by what she thought to be a divine calling. At the age of 17 at Embley Park, Nightingale made a commitment to nursing and human healthcare. This decision demonstrated strong will on her part in that she was willing to go beyond normality. It had constituted a rebellion against the expected role for women at that time, which was to become an obedient and humble wife. Nursing was a career with a poor reputation during that period of time. It was filled mostly by poor women, called "hangers-on", who had followed the armies when in war or in hardship. Nightingale announced her decision about nursing to her family in 1845, causing intense anger and distress from her entire family.
Nightingale was concerned with the horrific conditions of medical care for the masses of the poor and ignorant. It is said that the sole reason that she became a nurse was in order for her to gain the ability to take care of those who needed help, especially those like the poor who had no shelter to live under and children in need. In 1844, in a response to a pauper's death in an infirmary in London that became a public scandal, Nightingale became a leading advocate for improving medical care in the infirmaries. She had immediately engaged the support of Charles Villiers who was the president of
the Poor Law Board at the time. These events led to her active role in the reform of the Poor Laws which extended far beyond the provision of medical care.
Nightingale's career in nursing began in 1851 when she received short period training (about 4 months) in Germany as a deaconess of Kaisersw ...