She was profoundly impressed by the quality of care and by the commitment and practices of the deaconesses. In 1846 she visited Kaiserswerth, Germany, and learned more of its pioneering hospital established by Theodor Fliedner and managed by an order of Lutheran deaconesses. This led to her active role in the reform of the Poor Laws, extending far beyond the provision of medical care. In December 1844, in response to a pauper's death in a workhouse infirmary in London that became a public scandal, she became the leading advocate for improved medical care in the infirmaries and immediately engaged the support of Charles Villiers, then president of the Poor Law Board. Nightingale was particularly concerned with the appalling conditions of medical care for poor and indigent people. Nightingale announced her decision to enter nursing in 1845, evoking intense anger and distress from her family, particularly her mother. In fact, nurses were equally likely to function as cooks. In those days, nursing was a career with a poor reputation, filled mostly by poorer women, "hangers-on" who followed the armies. This demonstrated a passion on her part, and also a rebellion against the expected role for a woman of her status, which was to become an obedient wife. Inspired by what she thought to be a divine calling, experienced first in 1837 at Embley Park and later throughout her life, Nightingale made a commitment to nursing. In her early twenties she was introduced to a suitor, but declined the courtship and pursued life as a single woman. Her parents forbade her to practice nursing, and instead engage in marriage and a family.
Her parents were William Edward Nightingale (1794–1874) and Frances Nightingale née Smith (1789–1880). She was named after the city of her birth, as was her older sister Parthenope (the Greek name for the city of Naples).
0 kommentar(er)
