Nightingale was born in 1820 and died at the age of 90 in 1910. Renowned for her contributions to the field of nursing, she’s widely considered the founder of modern nursing, as many of her observations and fundamental principles became the bedrock of modern healthcare, especially concerning sanitation and holistic care. Born in Florence, Italy to a wealthy family, she found herself in conflict with her parents when she revealed her desire to go into nursing (as they had different hopes for her); as a woman in the Victorian age, she was expected to simply marry into a family of high standing and take up various social duties. Rejecting this path, she became a nursing student in 1844 at age 24, eventually returning to London, where she worked in a hospital.

When the Crimean War broke out in 1853, Nightingale organized a group of nurses to tend to the sick, wounded, and dying. Discovering terrible conditions of disease and a great lack of sanitation, she began forming opinions about the art of nursing as she observed her surroundings and gained valuable experience. She implemented sanitary measures in the hospitals and camps where she worked and greatly reduced the number of sick and dying merely by tending to the basics of

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