1820-1910. English nurse, the founder of
nursing as a profession. She took a team of
nurses to Scutari (now Uskudar, Turkey) in
1854 and reduced the Crimean War hospital
death rate from 42% to 2%. In 1856 she
founded the Nightingale School and Home for
Nurses in London. Born in Florence, Italy,
she trained in Germany and France. She was
the author of the classic Notes on Nursing;
she was awarded the Order of Merit 1907.