florence nightingale was born into a rich, well-connected british family at the villa colombaia, florence, italy, and was named after the city of her birth.her parents were william edward nightingale (1794–1875) and frances fanny nightingale née smith (1789–1880). william nightingale was born william edward shore. his mother mary née evans was the niece of one peter nightingale, under the terms of whose will william shore not only inherited his estate lea hurst in derbyshire, but also assumed the name and arms of nightingale. fannys father (florences maternal grandfather) was the abolitionist william smith.inspired by what she took as a divine calling, experienced first in 1837 at embley park and later throughout her life, nightingale committed herself to nursing. 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 a wife and mother. in those days, nursing was a career with a poor reputation, filled mostly by poorer women, hangers-on who followed the armies. in fact nurses were equally likely to function as cooks. nightingale announced her decision to enter nursing in 1845 evoking intense anger and distress from her family particularly her mother.she cared for poor and indigent people. in december 1844, in response to a paupers 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. this led to her active role in the reform of the poor laws, extending far beyond the provision of medical care.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. she was profoundly impressed by the quality of care and by the commitment and practices of the deaconesses.nightingale was courted by politician and poet richard monckton milnes, 1st baron houghton but she rejected him, convinced that marriage would interfere with her ability to follow her calling to nursing. when in rome in 1847, recovering from a mental breakdown precipitated by a continuing crisis of her relationship with milnes, she met sidney herbert, a brilliant politician who had been secretary at war (1845–1846), a position he would hold again during the crimean war. herbert was already married, but he and nightingale were immediately attracted to each other and they became lifelong close friends. herbert was instrumental in facilitating her pioneering work in crimea and in the field of nursing, and she became a key advisor to him in his political career. in 1851 she rejected milnes marriage proposal against her mothers wishes.nightingale also had strong and intimate relations with benjamin jowett, particularly about the time that she was considering leaving money in her will to establish a chair in applied statistics at the university of oxford.[1]nightingales career in nursing began in 1851, when she received four months training in germany as a deaconess of kaiserswerth. she undertook the training over strenuous family objections concerning the risks and social implications of such activity, and the roman catholic foundations of the hospital. while at kaiserswerth she reported having her most important and intense experience of her divine calling.on august 12, 1853, nightingale took a post of superintendent at the institute for the care of sick gentlewomen in upper harley street, london, a position she held until october 1854. her father had given her an annual income of £；500 (roughly us$50,000/£；25,000 in present terms), which allowed her to live comfortably and to pursue her career. james joseph sylvester was her mentor.[edit] crimean warflorence nightingales most famous contribution came during the crimean war, which became her central focus when reports began to filter back to britain about the horrific conditions for the wounded. on october 21, 1854, she and a staff of 38 women volunteer nurses, trained by nightingale and including her aunt mai smith, were sent (under the authorization of sidney herbert) to turkey, some 545 km across the black sea from balaklava in the crimea, where the main british camp was based.nightingale arrived early in november 1854 in scutari (modern-day ü；sküdar in istanbul). she and her nurses found wounded soldiers being badly cared for by overworked medical staff in the face of official indifference. medicines were in short supply, hygiene was being neglected, and mass infections were common, many of them fatal. there was no equipment to process food for the patients.nightingale and her compatriots began by thoroughly cleaning the hospital and equipment and reorganizing patient care. however, during her time at scutari, the death rate did not drop； on the contrary, it began to rise. the death count would be highest of all other hospitals in the region. during her first winter at scutari, 4077 soldiers died there. ten times more soldiers died from illnesses such as typhus, typhoid, cholera and dysentery than from battle wounds. conditions at the hospital were so fatal to the patients because of overcrowding and the hospitals defective sewers and lack of ventilation. a sanitary commission had to be sent out by the british government to scutari in march 1855, almost six months after florence nightingale had arrived, which flushed out the sewers and improved ventilation. death rates were sharply reduced.nightingale continued believing the death rates were due to poor nutrition and supplies and overworking of the soldiers. it was not until after she returned to britain and began collecting evidence before the royal commission on the health of the army, that she came to believe that most of the soldiers at the hospital were killed by poor living conditions. this experience would influence her later career, when she advocated sanitary living conditions as of great importance. consequently, she reduced deaths in the army during peacetime and turned attention to the sanitary design of hospitals.[edit] return homeflorence nightingale returned to britain a heroine on august 7, 1857, and, according to the bbc, was arguably the most famous victorian after queen victoria herself. nightingale moved from her family home in middle claydon, buckinghamshire, to the burlington hotel in piccadilly. however, she was stricken by a fever, probably due to a chronic form of brucellosis (crimean fever) that she contracted during the crimean war,[2] possibly combined with chronic fatigue syndrome[citation needed]. she barred her mother and sister from her room and rarely left it.in response to an invitation from queen victoria – and despite the limitations of confinement to her room – nightingale played the central role in the establishment of the royal commission on the health of the army, of which sidney herbert became chairman. as a woman, nightingale could not be appointed to the royal commission, but she wrote the commissions 1,000-plus page report that included detailed statistical reports, and she was instrumental in the implementation of its recommendations. the report of the royal commission led to a major overhaul of army military care, and to the establishment of an army medical school and of a comprehensive system of army medical records.[edit] later careerwhile she was still in turkey, on november 29, 1855, a public meeting to give recognition to florence nightingale for her work in the war led to the establishment of the nightingale fund for the training of nurses. there was an outpouring of generous donations. sidney herbert served as the honorary secretary of the fund, and the duke of cambridge was chairman. nightingale was also considered a pioneer in the concept of medical tourism as well based on her letters from 1856 in which she would write to spas in turkey detailing the health conditions, physical descriptions, dietary information, and other vitally important details of patients whom she directed there (which was significantly less expensive than switzerland). she was obviously directing patients of meager means to affordable treatment.by 1859 nightingale had £；45,000 at her disposal from the nightingale fund to set up the nightingale training school at st. thomas hospital on july 9, 1860. (it is now called the florence nightingale school of nursing and midwifery and is part of kings college london.) the first trained nightingale nurses began work on may 16 at the liverpool workhouse infirmary. she also campaigned and raised funds for the royal buckinghamshire hospital in aylesbury, near her family home.nightingale wrote notes on nursing, which