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Sculpture
Artist: Hillary Bonham-Carter
Date Acquired: 1872
MGH Department Affiliation: School of Nursing Alumnae
Nightingale, Florence
Catalog Number: 31
Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) worked as a nurse at the Institute of Protestant Deaconesses in Kaisersworth, Germany. In 1852, she was appointed Superintendent of the Institution for the Care of Sick Gentlewomen in Distressed Circumstances in London. In 1854, when Britain was fighting the Crimean War, Sir Sidney Herbert, Secretary of War, obtained approval to appoint Miss Nightingale the Superintendent of the Female Nursing Establishment in Turkey. Later that year, she was the leader of a group of 38 nurses who left London for the Barracks Hospital in Scutari. The nurses improved the meals provided to the injured and cared for the approximately 12,000 casualties in the hospital.
Meanwhile in England, the Nightingale Fund was established to help British soldiers. In 1860, Nightingale founded the Nightingale School for Nurses, based out of St. Thomas' Hospital in London. Her book, Notes On Nursing, published in 1860, was a seminal work in the development of the nursing profession. In 1897, at Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee celebration, Nightingale was acknowledged for her influence in the progress of nursing as a distinct profession.
Today, Nightingale is considered by many to be the founder of modern nursing. The Massachusetts General Hospital School of Nursing was created in 1873 and was patterned according to the principles established by Florence Nightingale. The MGH still commemorates her through the Florence Nightingale Award, which honors nurses for their outstanding contributions to nursing and their devotion to caring for others.
“Nursing is an Art; the finest of the Fine Arts... The goal of nursing is to put the patient in the best condition for nature to act upon him, primarily by altering the environment".
-Florence Nightingale
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