Florence lived a long life, received public recognition and died peacefully at home at the age of 90. But to do this, she had to give up what many of her contemporaries could only dream of. Florence Nightingale was born in London, into a family of wealthy aristocrats and received a brilliant education — she knew ancient Greek, Latin, French, German and Italian. A happy and serene fate awaited her: a profitable match, a chic wedding, balls and social receptions, wealth and position in society. But she refused all this because she felt that her vocation lay elsewhere. Most of all, Florence wanted to help people. First of all, to people who are sick. In Victorian England, the profession of a nurse — a dirty, thankless job - befitted only nuns and poor women, but not young ladies from high society. In addition, the profession of a nurse was generally notorious: the Puritan society condemned the bodily contact of men and women who were not married Florence dreamed of becoming a nurse from the age of 20, but only 13 years later, at 33, she was finally able to overcome the resistance of her family. Most likely, by this moment, relatives realized that Florence would remain an old maid, and gave up on her strange desires. Florence was finally able to feel happy when she was allowed to visit the sick and travel to Italy, Egypt and Greece to study the work of the sisters of mercy. After this trip, Florence, having overcome another resistance of her mother, went to Germany, to the community of the sisters of Pastor Theodor Fliender. There, in the city of Kaiserwerth, it was possible to get the best education in the specialty "Nursing". She then returned to London and became the manager of a private hospital on Harley Street in London. Under Nightingale's leadership, the recovery rates of patients increased so much that she was invited to other hospitals in order to lead them. In October 1854, Florence, along with 38 assistants, among whom were nuns and sisters of mercy, went to field hospitals, first to Turkey, and then to the Crimea. There she taught nurses the principles of sanitation and the basics of caring for the wounded. As a result, the mortality rate in the infirmaries decreased from 42% to 2.2% in just six months. Florence seemed to have accomplished the impossible. The soldiers made up legends about her and called her "the lady with the lamp" because at night she personally went around the wards and checked the condition of the patients. It is thanks to Florence Nightingale that nursing is so developed today. Florence decided to reorganize military medicine, and she succeeded. Despite the protests of the War Ministry, she managed to create a commission on health problems in the army. In Victorian England, women had no right to be members of such a commission, but Nightingale still influenced her activities, because no one else had such complete and reliable information about how things were with medicine in the army. In addition, Florence provided her statistical research to the Government. Her 800-page book Notes on Nursing (1858) contained a section on statistics. Indeed, Nightingale is described as "a true pioneer in the graphical representation of statistics", and is especially well-known for her usage of a polar area diagram, or occasionally the Nightingale rose diagram, equivalent to a modern circular histogram, to illustrate seasonal sources of patient mortality in the military field hospital she managed. While frequently credited as the creator of the polar area diagram, it is known to have been used by André-Michel Guerry in 1829 and Léon Louis Lalanne by 1830. Nightingale called a compilation of such diagrams a "coxcomb", but later that term would frequently be used for the individual diagrams. She made extensive use of coxcombs to present reports on the nature and magnitude of the conditions of medical care in the Crimean War to Members of Parliament and civil servants who would have been unlikely to read or understand traditional statistical reports. In 1859, Nightingale was elected the first female member of the Royal Statistical Society. In 1874 she became an honorary member of the American Statistical Association. In 1859, Nightingale was elected a fellow of the Royal Statistical Society and subsequently became an honorary member of the American Statistical Association. She has written the books Notes on Factors Affecting the Health, Efficiency and Management of British Army Hospitals and How to Care for the Sick. Soon she opened a nursing school at St. Thomas' Hospital in London. From that moment the history of modern nursing began. In 1883, Nightingale was awarded the Royal Red Cross, and in 1907 — the Order of Merit. In 1912, the League of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent established the Florence Nightingale Medal, still the most honorable and highest award for nurses around the world. Florence Nightingale died on August 13, 1910. Today, 100 years later, we receive help from nurses only thanks to her. The annual International Nurses Day is celebrated on her birthday. Probably slowly team could add stamp on the day of her death full biography
