Florence Nightingale

Named after her birthplace in the Italian city of Florence, Florence Nightingale's father made sure his daughter was educated at a time when most women were uneducated housewives looking after loads of children. Florence was 16 when she declared she wanted to be a nurse even with the displeasure of her parents due to the unsanitary conditions of hospitals at that time but she went on to become a nurse regardless though going to a Christian school in Germany. Florence learned about hospital cleanliness and proper patient care at that school and applied it to her nursing work in London. With impoverished lighting systems back then, Florence carried a lantern with her which resulted in her getting the nickname she shares with Nano Nagel, the Lady of the Lamp.
In 1853, when Russia, Turkey and England went to war in Crimea, Florence was recruited there by the Ministry of War's Sidney Herbert to lead a team of nurses to tend to the wounded soldiers in the Crimean War. The war hospital was in a terrible state with lack of sanitation, blocked drains and overcrowding. With funds from England and workmen cleaning the drains, Florence was able to make the hospital a safer and hygienic place. She also had a kitchen set up for the hospital and like any nurse, Florence provided care for the wounded soldiers like dressing them, bathing them and feeding them. Her work helped the death rate in those hospitals decline. She also dictated letters for those who weren't able to write letters for the soldiers back home.
When the Crimean War ended in 1856, Florence continued her nursing career in England where she campaigned for better hospital care to be made possible across the world which saw army units commencing training programmes for doctors, hospitals becoming more hygienic and soldiers were now being provided better food, clothes and care! Florence also went about opening up a nurse training programme called the Nightingale Training School for Nurses which opened at St Thomas's Hospital, London which help get ambitious women out of the homes and into the work force by being provided excellent nurse training.
Florence Nightingale's birthday, 12 May is now International Nurses Day which was established by the International Council of Nurses in 1965, 55 years after Florence Nightingale died in 1910 at the age of 90.