The Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery
Nightingale wanted change in the status of nurses. She made nurses into strong, responsible, and skilled women by establishing a nurse training school. The school was instituted on July 9, 1860 at St. Thomas’ Hospital. It was “the first secular nursing school in the world, and the only one to have been funded solely by private donations to an individual,” states Lynn McDonald. Now located at the King's College in London, this school provided opportunities for women to become nurses and was the foundation for all professional nursing careers. Women were finally paid for their employment as nurses.
"Florence Nightingale and Sir Harry Verney, along with nurses of the Nightingale School, at Claydon House. Photograph courtesy of the Wellcome Library, London." Lynn McDonald.
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"St. Thomas' Hospital at Nightingale's time, the 'new hospital' across the Thames from the Houses of Parliament. Photography courtesy of the Wellcome Library, London." Lynn McDonald
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"It was Nightingale's particular mission to make nursing into a profession that provided patient care, the hospital to hire cleaning staff to perform those essential tasks." -Lynn McDonald, The Nightingale School
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"Nightingale was not the first person to try to reform or otherwise improve nursing, but she was the first who sought to make it a paid profession for women. She herself was deeply religious, and she thought that faith was an excellent motivator and help in such onerous work. Moreover, she believed that the work itself should be paid, not voluntary, and the qualifications trained experience, not religious commitment." -Lynn McDonald, The Nightingale School
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Florence Nightingale wanted to create opportunities for women to have a paid nursing career. The Nightingale School allowed women to train to become nurses, for Nightingale believed nurses required an education and training.
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