100 Word Challenge - Epidemic

This post is in response to the prompt: epidemic given in the 100 Word Challenge
temporarily hosted by LouCeel and inspired by his post on the same topic.
Oh the difference 42 years can make.

Florence Nightingale was born to a British family in Florence, Italy. She moved back to London as a young girl and fought her family's expectations in order to become a nurse.

In 1854, during the Crimean War, she realized that in the crowded and dirty hospital conditions, the epidemic of cholera was killing more soldiers than injuries. Florence helped create the modern techniques of nursing that made contemporary nursing possible and started a school for nurses in London.

She was the first woman to receive the "Order of Merit", the highest honor awarded to a British person, from Queen Victoria.



Florence Nightingale was both a nurse and a statistician. She used her knowledge of math and statistics to show the British government that providing better conditions for sick and wounded soldiers would help them win the war. She became known as "the Lady with the Lamp" based on the rounds she made of the soldiers at night.
Florence brought hospital hygiene and basic sanitation to the care of the sick. The school she started was the first secular nursing school in the world.
The Nightingale pledge taken by new nurses was named in her honor. International Nurses Day is celebrated yearly on her birthday, May 12 (1820).

I'm excited that this 100 word challenge is also my 100th blog post!
And it's on the topic of nursing, near and dear to my heart,
since I spent 36 years as a nurse before retiring last year.
I'm celebrating both by a brand new blog look
inspired by my love of reading and my new home in Italy.