15 Florence Nightingale Facts Every Nurse Should Know (Part 2)

Most students, in nursing school or otherwise, have heard of the famous Florence Nightingale. Yet many may not know some of the most interesting and amazing facts about her life that make her such an inspiration to those in the nursing profession around the world. In honor of National Nurse Week, take some time to read through these facts about one of the most famous pioneers in the field. You might just get inspired to lead your own health care revolution

6. Nightingale's own aunt worked under her during the Crimean War. Helping her tend to the wounded, along with 37 other women, her Aunt Mai Smith was by her side to work in the Ottoman Empire in the fall of 1854.

7. At the beginning of the war, Nightingale believed high death rates in military hospitals were due to poor nutrition, lack of supplies and overworking of the soldiers. It was not until after she returned to Britain and was reviewing her work that she came to believe that most of the soldiers at the hospital were killed by poor living conditions. This understanding would change not only how she operated, but how nursing as a profession would be carried out.

8. Nightingale was a proponent of medical tourism. Today, many individuals travel to foreign lands to get medical treatment that doesn't cost the astronomical sums that it does in America. It was no different in Nightingale's time and she was known to advise patients on smaller incomes to travel to places like Turkey, where they could have access to spas, medical treatment and good nutrition at a much lower cost.

9. During her time in the war, she contracted Crimean Fever. She nearly died herself while trying to nurse the wounded men back to health, contracting a form of typhus, a disease from which many of her coworkers and patients would die. While she recovered from her illness, it would cause medical issues that would confine her to bed rest for much of her later life.

10. Florence had a great love of mathematics and devoted much time in her later life to using statistics to better understand health care. She is credited with starting a health revolution in India, collecting data from military outposts through the mail and creating a detailed report based on the stats she was able to compile. Her findings helped push forth changes that would reduce the high death rates of soldiers and would improve health care and sanitation for everyday people as well.