Florence Nightingale was born in Florence, Italy, while her wealthy English
parents were traveling in Europe. As a child, she traveled to many places with
her family and learned how to speak several languages. When
Nightingale was 17, she told her family that she was going to help sick people.
Her parents did not approve, but Nightingale was determined.
She traveled to hospitals all over Europe. She saw that doctors were working too
hard. She saw that patients died because they did not get enough care.
Nightingale felt that women could be doing more to help doctors take care of
sick people. Nightingale knew that in order for nurses to do
more, they needed special training in how to take care of sick people.
Nightingale went to a hospital in Germany to study nursing. Then she returned to
London and became the head of a group of women called Gentlewomen During
Illness. These women cared for sick people in their homes. In
1854, England was fighting a war with Russia. Warreporters wrote about the
terrible conditions in the hospitals that cared for the wounded. People demanded
that something be done about it. A leader of the government asked Florence
Nightingale to take some nurses into the war hospitals. So, in November 1854,
Nightingale finally got to work in a hospital. She took along
38 nurses whom she had trained herself. At first, the doctors
on the battlefields did not want Nightingale and her nurses in their hospitals.
They did not believe that women could help. But in fact, the nurses did make a
difference. They worked around the clock, tending the sick. Thanks to their hard
work, many wounded soldiers survived. After the war,
Nightingale and her nurses were treated like heroes. Finally, in 1860, she
started the Nightingale School for Nurses. In time, thanks to Florence
Nightingale, nursing became an important part of medicine.
单选题
Florence Nightingale was born into a rich ______.