In early November 1854, a ship departing from England arrived at Istanbul Harbor, after a two-week sea voyage. From the deck of the ship, Florence Nightingale stood gazing at the capital of the Ottoman Empire. During the 19th century, Istanbul was known as one of the vacation spots for European aristocrats who wanted to experience the summer atmosphere of the Black Sea.
Despite her royal status, Florence was setting foot in Istanbul for the first time. She arrived with two head nurses from St. Thomas' Hospital London, 38 volunteer nurses and 12 nuns.
They were sent after receiving reports of poor conditions at the British military hospital in Scutari, Istanbul. Wounded soldiers were overcrowded in wards, lacked lighting, and neglected sanitation. Not surprisingly, the mortality rate of British soldiers due to wounds brought from the battlefield reached more than 90 percent.
Two weeks in the army barracks, Florence had witnessed more than 3,400 British soldiers coming from the battlefield with severe injuries. There were hundreds who had to have their legs and/or hands amputated.
Florence was 500 kilometers away from the fighting, but she still saw the horror of the Crimean War coming her way. British military hospitals with less than 900 personnel were no match for the growing number of soldiers. The workload for Florence and her colleagues multiplied.
"Every hour from 1pm to 9pm, we have to make the beds of the patients, find the soldiers empty beds, lay them down, treat and bandage the wounds. I wish I had more time to spare and could reply to your letter," Florence wrote in a letter dated November 15, 1854 to her superior at St. Thomas Hospital, William Bowman.
However, what touched her heart was the condition of the nursing facility where she worked. Poor conditions even made cholera another threat to the soldiers. Not wanting to remained silent, Florence, who was 34 years old at the time, sent an open letter to The Times newspaper also in November 1854. The letter urged the government to help create a solution to the problem of the poor condition of health facilities in Crimea.
The urgency was well-founded. Between November 1854 and January 1855, 4,077 soldiers died at the British Military Hospital Scutari. The majority died of diseases such as typhus, typhoid, cholera and dysentery rather than battle wounds.
The answer and solution then came through the Sanitary Commission formed by Brunel Kingdom nobleman Isambard, who designed a dismantled hospital that was built in England and shipped to Turkey in March 1855.
Researcher Stephen Paget in the Dictionary of National Biography (1885) even wrote that Florence successfully cut the death rate from 42% to just 2%. The death rate was indeed sharply reduced, but in her letters, Florence never claimed the success as her own. She still gave credit to all the nursing personnel, janitors and nuns who helped her.
Despite the drastic reduction in the death rate, she continued her habit of walking alone in the wards late at night to check on the patients. Her lack of rest led to a severe illness in May 1855, which nearly took Florence's life.
Florence's sacrifice earned her the nickname "The Lady with the Lamp" from a journalist from The Times who covered the Crimean War and visited Renkioi Hospital.
"She was a 'ministering angel' without exaggeration in this hospital, and as her slender body glided quietly down each corridor, the face of every unfortunate person instantly softened with gratitude at the sight of her. When all the medical staff have retired for a quiet, dark night in the hospital, Florence can be seen alone, with a small lamp in her hand, making her rounds alone," reads the article.
The experience in the Crimean War theater opened Florence's eyes. So when she returned to England in 1856, Florence was determined to make a change in the field of nursing. From simply cleaning and caring for patients, to playing an important role in their recovery. She then became a pioneer of the revolution in the profession that is at the forefront of health.
In 1974, 64 years after Florence Nightingale died on August 13, 1910, the International Council of Nurses (ICN) established May 12 (Florence's birthday) as International Nurses Day. This is a form of celebration of Florence's important role in changing the image of the nursing profession to what we know today.
