Florence Nightingale and Elizabeth Garrett

Florence Nightingale and Elizabeth Garett Anderson



Florence Nightingale

Florence Nightingale was an English nurse who lived from 1820 to 1910 who is famous for her work in the Crimean war where she nursed wounded soldiers. She worked at a hospital in Scutari and when she arrived she discovered that the living conditions were very poor and many of the soldiers at the hospital were dying because of diseases they had caught in the hospital and not their wounds. Florence Nightingale hugely improved the living conditions and therefore improved the mortality rate of the soldiers. She made her contribution to medicine when she founded her nursing school at St Thomas’ Hospital in London which trained nurses and then had them leave to work at hospitals all over Britain and spread Florence’s theories. She also published the book “Notes on Nursing” which was massively   influential and helped educate people on medical health and nursing.

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson was the first English female doctor; she was one of 12 children in her family and was the daughter of a wealthy businessman, this meant she received a good education. She wanted to be a doctor from very early in her life but was unable to get a medical degree in England and was often barred from going to classes because of her gender, for this reason she taught herself French and went to Paris to obtain her medical degree and qualify as a doctor. In 1872 she set up the New Hospital for Women where only women were staff and later created the London School of Medicine for Women. She retired in 1902 and then went on to become the first female mayor in the country in 1908, she then died in 1917 and the London School of Medicine for Women was renamed the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital.