Superflo - a heroine
Flo's most important achievements
- Flo started the first professional training school for nurses. This made being a nurse a respectable paid job for women.
- Flo used numbers (called statistics) that showed the government they could have saved many more soldiers from dying. The government made changes to improve how soldiers were cared for.
- Flo improved the care for most sick people. She got trained nurses to take care of them in workhouses.
Flo's parents were so rich they owned 2 houses. So her parents didn't expect Flo to work. They wanted her to marry a rich man.
"Embley Park" by [email protected] at en.wikipedia. Licensed under CC BY 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons.
Flo had to study nursing in secret because her parents didn't want her to be a nurse. Most nurses had no training and hospitals were bad at treating people. Most people died when they went to hospital.
Flo loved maths
Flo loved maths when she was a girl. She also liked creating statistics. Statistics are numbers that give you information. People can use statistics to improve things. For example, the cook of school lunches can use statistics to cook the right number of different types of pizza so they don't make too many.
After the war Flo met Queen Victoria. The Queen helped her persuade the government to find out what had gone wrong in the war and learn from the mistakes. Flo gave the government her own report. This had the number of deaths, which she had recorded in the Scutari hospital. It was her statistics that showed most deaths could have been prevented. Most men had died from diseases that could have been cured.
Flo used her fame for her greatest achievement
Flo had a friend in the government called Sidney Herbert. He was the Minister for War. He raised money for Flo's work. He got donations from banks and lots of people. In today's money, the money raised would have been 2 million pounds!
Flo used the money to start the first professional training school for nurses in 1860. It was called the Nightingale Training School. This changed nursing into a respectable paid profession for women. Once the nurses were trained, they were sent to hospitals all over Britain. The nurses shared her ideas at the hospitals. After her school became famous, Nightingale nurses were asked to work in hospitals in other countries. Her nurses started new schools all over the world!
Flo used the money to start the first professional training school for nurses in 1860. It was called the Nightingale Training School. This changed nursing into a respectable paid profession for women. Once the nurses were trained, they were sent to hospitals all over Britain. The nurses shared her ideas at the hospitals. After her school became famous, Nightingale nurses were asked to work in hospitals in other countries. Her nurses started new schools all over the world!
Flo helped the poor
Flo helped improve the care for the sick in workhouses where the jobless poor had to live and work. If they became ill they stayed in the workhouse with no trained nurses and bad conditions. Most sick people were in the workhouses - 5 times more than in normal hospitals.
Flo persuaded a rich man to pay trained nurses to look after the sick in one workhouse where they also tried to train others to be nurses.
Flo persuaded the government to suggest to other workhouses to pay for trained nurses. After a while more and more workhouses had trained nurses.
Flo also campaigned for better conditions in the workhouse hospitals.
Flo persuaded a rich man to pay trained nurses to look after the sick in one workhouse where they also tried to train others to be nurses.
Flo persuaded the government to suggest to other workhouses to pay for trained nurses. After a while more and more workhouses had trained nurses.
Flo also campaigned for better conditions in the workhouse hospitals.
She wrote many of her letters to people in the government and other important people. She tried to influence them to help her make changes to nursing and hospitals.
Flo wrote 'Notes on Hospital' (1859) and 'Notes on Nursing' (1859) that laid the foundations of modern nursing practice.
Flo in the Crimean War
Flo was much more than a nurse. She also:
- supervised nurses at several hospitals
- wrote to people in England about the terrible conditions.
- set up new ways of doing things
- made sure the hospital had a new laundry room and kitchen which helped the patients become cleaner and gave them healthy food.
Unfortunately the hospital drains were not working. Poo flowed on the floors and poo got into the drinking water tank. Although Flo worked very hard to improve conditions at the hospital there was nothing she could do about the broken drains. Because soldiers were drinking dirty water many stayed sick and died.