Anyone considering a career in nursing knows the name Florence Nightingale, a pioneer in the field. Florence, parents were British, was born in Florence, Italy, in 1820. However, she was raised in England. In 1845, she announced her decision to become a nurse to her mother and father, both of objected strenuously. Like many people of that era, they did not see nursing as a suitable career for a young woman family was quite well off. However, Florence refused to give up her dream, and in 1854, she led a group of nurses to the Crimea, where Britain and France were fighting a war against Russia. In Scutari, she and the nurses were assigned to a British military hospital in a deplorable state. The wounded, most of suffered from infections or diseases, were surrounded by filth that was home to hundreds of rats. Moreover, they were being treated by exhausted doctors requests for more medical supplies were being ignored. It was as though the British government had chosen to forget these unfortunate soldiers.

Florence and her nurses, all of were shocked by conditions at the hospital, immediately set about improving the situation. Soon Florence, nightly visits to the wounded patients earned her the title "the lady with the lamp" became famous, and started to receive donations of money from the public. She used some of the money given her during the next several years to establish the Nightingale School and Home for Nurses in London. Unfortunately, because of poor health and other charitable commitments, she had to refuse the position of school superintendant.

Three years before her death in 1910, Florence, goal in life had been to help the less fortunate, became the first woman to receive Britain's Order of Merit. Moreover, a book she wrote, title was "Notes on Nursing" included ideas about the profession that are still valid today. Her school was the first to offer an official nursing program, and new nurses nowadays swear an oath, the "Nightingale Pledge", named after her. It is only fitting that every year International Nurses Day is celebrated on her birthday.