The International Nurses Day is celebrated around the world today, on May 12 which is the birth date of Florence Nightingale.
This precursor of modern-day nursing was born in Florence, Italy on May 12, 1820, and named after her birthplace. Florence Nightingale is best known for est. the earliest teaching institution-her first secular nursing school opened in St. Thomas Hospital in London already in 1860. She amazingly led a team of 38 nurses to the Black Sea region in the middle of a war. To be specific the Crimean war during which she organized medical aid for British injured troops. Her nick name "Lady with the lamp" originated in Scutari, Albania, where, by consent from the Secretary of War she attended to British soldiers-decimated by typhus, typhoid, cholera, dysentery-in one-word deadly sanitary conditions. Florence Nightingale pioneered modern hygiene and medical aid. Her life was one great battle for hospital hygiene and sanitation. She was also a prolific writer and the first woman to be awarded the Order of Merit in 1907. Florence Nightingale died Aug. 13, 1910. We also observed our own American National Nurses Week from May 6 culminating with today's celebration. We all have benefited from the health saving skills of our nurses-they more than deserve our salute! Please stop by our museum to meet Polish pioneers in nursing like Helena Paderewska and her White Cross of Poland!
Beatrix Czerkawski
Photos present Mary of Nazareth School of Nursing Memorial award; Polish White Cross Nurses of USA; Dressing School in Polish White Cross Hospital, Warsaw, 1919; PMA Library book collection paintings "Physician's Visit" by Jan Steen, 1665, oil on canvas and "Sick Child" by Gabriel Metsu, 1660, oil on canvas from "Rembrandt and Vermeer" by Nash; paintings "Science and Charity" by Pablo Picasso, 1897, oil on canvas and "Florence Nightingale attending to wounded soldiers at Scutari", 1856, oil on canvas from book "Nursing-the Finest Art of all" by Patricia Donohue.
#florencenightingale #modernnursing #polishwhitecross #helenapaderewska #nationalnursesweek
