Florence Nightingale: A Life Inspired

by Lynn M. Hamilton, Wyatt North

Has there ever been someone who accomplished so much and at the same time thought less of herself? Before she had even turned forty, Florence Nightingale was the darling of the British public, the heroine of the Crimea. She could have sailed home to England and comfortably dined out on her fame for the remainder of her long days.Instead, she conducted a ruthless post-mortem on every moment of her wartime service and found herself entirely wanting. She did not try to hide her mistakes; instead, she sought to broadcast them so that everyone would understand what happens in unsanitary medical facilities. She could well have slid into self-pity and inertia, yet she spent the next several decades campaigning for reforms.One hundred and fifty years ago, the respect we now have for nurses and the intense training that nurses must undergo was nothing but a seed in Florence Nightingale’s imagination. If we believe that nurses are some of the most respectable and hardworking people in our community, we owe that belief to Florence Nightingale. But she never took the credit. As an old woman of seventy-seven, she deflected all her accomplishments onto God with the words, “How inefficient I was in the Crimea! Yet He has raised up Trained Nursing from it!”

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, History, Historical, Christian, Amazon, Medicine

130 pages, Paperback

First published April 17, 2015

Reviews

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a dry but most interesting read. I remembered from nursing school that Florence Nightingale was the "lady with the lantern" but little facts of her life. She is responsible for clean individual bath cloths to prevent cross contamination between patients, ventilation for rooms, the washing of bedding on a daily basis, screens surrounding patients undergoing surgery to prevent others from watching and other significant reforms which make nursing what it is today. Nursing was looked down upon in her day and wasn't a respected profession. During the Crimean War she started the first class training institute for nurses. She was very good with numbers and invented the pie chart, she also changed the diet patients received realizing the role that good nutrition played in healing. I found it interesting to learn that she was the first person to introduce pets to the sick because of the positive psychological response.
In her early 30's she became very ill, often bedridden and was never properly diagnosed. She recovered but extreme fatigue plagued her the rest of her life. Her professional choice caused great strife in her family who didn't approve. As a nurse I greatly enjoyed this book!

[Tebafin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love reading about powerful women who make a difference in the world... Florence nightingale is one of those. She feels a call from God and she acts upon it... And then through all of her success she gives all the of the glory right back to God.

[R.J. Rodda · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

The story of Florence Nightingale’s life is truly inspiring and I’m glad to have read this. What a great woman she was!

This is an overview of her life, not very lengthy but long enough to understand why she is so lauded. A little bit of tighter editing would have improved this.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a short easy read. I learned things I didn't know about Florence Nightingale. She helped to guide health care workers to better cleanliness, which changed the death rate among soldiers, and later in civilian hospitals. She came from a background of wealth, and she wouldn't have had to work a day in her life. Her parents forbid her from becoming a nurse, but later admired the work she did. She was ill for a good part of her later life, but she continued to work from her home, and had meetings with important people there. Nurses were looked down on when Florence decided to become a nurse. She raised the standards of nursing, and therefore it became a profession that was honored.

[Jeff Dawson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent account of her life. Does it read, like some reviewers have suggested, like a report from Wikipedia? At times, yes. That aside, I knew the name but never her contributions in the Crimea war or her undying attempts to advance modern nursing or medicine. She, like Joan of Arc, was ahead of her time.

I enthusiastically recommend this to anyone in the medical field or those who are thinking of joining up. Her never give up attitude and the constant demand for facilities to improve will fill you with resolve. She never gave up and spent her life trying to improve those who were in need of care.

Four stars.

[Michelle Reetz · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick and easy read about an amazing woman!

[Loretta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting to read as I didn't know much about her life. She accomplished so much and it gave me a new appreciation of the changes that were created in medical care due to her influence. The book was a tad dry but I'm glad I read it.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great book giving insights to the life of Florence Nightingale. Though short, I still learned new things about her and how many areas of nursing she touched. There are many of her ideas still used today.

[Analee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved learning about the influence of Miss Nightingale.

[Lucy-Bookworm · Rating 4 out of 5]

We have all heard of “the lady with the lamp” and know that Florence Nightingale came to prominence during the Crimean war for her efforts in reducing infection by simple cleaning (this was long before germ theory!), however, I was not aware of her pre-nursing life or the health issues that would impact her later life.
Born into a wealthy family, but rejecting the expectations that she would marry, have children & spend her time in the social drawing rooms of her peers, Florence showed her caring attitude from a young age. She had a strong religious faith and a sense that God was calling her not to a religious life but to a specific purpose.
Well ahead of her time, it was through observation that Florence made such significant contributions to nutrition, sanitation and management that influenced our modern life. It was interesting to discover that Florence Nightingale was the first to consider the emotional and mental welfare of the patients as well as their medical needs. She improved their diet, introduced books, and even suggested that pets might help recovery (modern day pets as therapy is well acknowledged).
I was fascinated to discover that it was Florence Nightingale who invented the Pie Chart for easily explaining statistics, as well as being responsible for many of the significant reforms which make nursing what it is today.
I recommend this short read for anyone who wants to know more about the person, rather than the legend of Florence Nightingale.

[Loraine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short non-fiction biography did an excellent job of covering Florence Nightingale's life. Raised in the Unitarian Church which put an emphasis on good works, Florence felt from an early age that God had a special purpose for her. She finally found it when she discovered that nursing was something she felt was important even though her wealthy English family only wanted her to marry into the upper class, be a housewife, and have babies. But Florence was an independent, very intelligent young woman and followed her own call. Many of the modern hospital layouts are copied due to Florence's strong feelings for sanitation and germ spreading. She also felt deeply about how caretaking, nursing, and sanitation needed to be accomplished. She wrote many books and papers regarding these subjects. She was definitely a woman ahead of her time. She was constantly learning from her nursing during the Crimean War. Definitely an interesting and informative read.

Florence was dubbed "The Lady of the Lamp" because when she was head of the hospital during the Crimean War, she would walk the wards at night carrying a lantern to check each of the patients.

[Brenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting read as I really didn't know much about Florence Nightingale beyond that she was a nurse who helped her patients in a time when patient care was deplorable. I had no idea just how much she transformed patient care and influenced how we care for patients even today. Even the way our hospitals are laid out was just a small part of her lifetime of work. To think of having surgery without the benefit of anesthesia and then to be put into a ward with several other patients, with no ventilation, no separation from the infected - no wonder the mortality rate was so high. Florence, not the doctors, saw how the unsanitary conditions were killing patients and fought to make changes. I have a lot of admiration for her now that I've read this book.

[David Potter · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great Victorian

History rarely affirms our stereotypes. Today to describe someone as Victorian borders on insult. Contemporary attitudes tend towards the dismissive, as if hypocrisy was the hallmark of its heroes and exploitation of its entrepreneurs. But so was altruism. If some found it hard to break the mould of their social milieu some did so with remarkable success to the lasting benefit of those who followed after. Florence Nightingale was a flawed human being, like us all, but her achievements were colossal. And this book wants us also to understand that her personal faith was key to who she was and what she did.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was totally inspired by Florence Nightingale's story. Reading her story, now at this point in my life, made me see her in a new light. I loved how the author shared her personal stories as well as all of the events in the timeline of her life. I was inspired by her drive and how she never stopped (even when confined to her chaise lounge). I didn't realize how truly influential she was in her time. She was really a pioneer and innovator that changed the world in disease control, nursing, military operations, free rights of India, etc. I really enjoyed this biography. I listened to it on Audible, and the reader wasn't that exciting, but the story definitely made up for it.

[Kelley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciated its brevity, but I felt like it was a summary of someone else reading primary texts. When the author says things like Florence loved this because she wrote about it in her letters, why not include the excerpt from the letter that is your evidence? Instead it is entirely the authors summary of her life (essentially her correspondence, journals, and papers), which leads me to be skeptical of some of the conclusions drawn, as I have no factual evidence to support the claim. Still, a good synopsis of her life and the events that shaped her.

[Sandy Holmes · Rating 3 out of 5]

She was amazing! We owe so much to her! Sanitation and cleanliness in health care, for example. The modern hospital is based on her original ideas. She felt that God gave her a calling and any success belongs to Him.
She served during the Crimea war where more than 20,000 British soldiers died, not from war, but from the filthy conditions of the camps. More than 16,000 died from sickness and disease. Florence addressed this issue and was quite the reformer during this time. I learned a lot from reading this book!

[Libby · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve really learned a lot from this book. I don’t have anything to compare it to for its accuracy but it read like a well researched book if that helps anyone. She was really a woman before her time who was not content to be idle like other wealthy Victorian women of her time. She really broke barriers for women and contributed greatly to the respect given to nurses now a days. She almost intuitively knew the importance of cleanliness and sanitation though this was before the Germ theory was developed.

[Don Estes · Rating 4 out of 5]

An Inspired and Inspiring Life

I had read a bit about the life of Florence Nightingale before opening Lynn Hamilton and Wyatt North's biography of her. I was pleased to learn a lot more by reading this book. My only complaint about it is that the authors early on mention her calling by God, but never discuss it again until the end. It is inconceivable that the authors were unaware of God directing Florence Nightingale's steps, for when God calls a person, He is not a passive bystander in their life. He becomes the author of it.

[Samantha Mathis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this for a class but was surprised to actually enjoy it.

This book is an engaging and informative history of Florence Nightingale and her impact on not only nursing, but medicine in general. This was on my required reading for my BSN program and while I was expecting this book to be a dry recounting of everything Nightingale had done, I was proved very wrong. There was wit and humor written in. I felt like I got to know the real Florence Nightingale rather than just some dry person from the history books. Very well done.

[Julie G Miles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative story

This book gave a good overview of Nightingale's life. It was fun getting to learn more about her life and work to improve the field of nursing, though it felt more like reading a textbook than a regular book. I usually prefer to read fiction but this was a nice, short book that I was able to finish in less than a day.

[Darrell Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easy read about a great nurse

Easy read about a pioneer in nursing. She was ahead of her time! Didn't realize she suffered with chronic health problem much of her life, with a disease associated with unpasteurized milk, that she was a nurse concerned not just with physical health but also with her patient's mental health as well. Anyone interested in being a nurse should read!

[Cherop · Rating 4 out of 5]

I grew up hearing references to Florence Nightingale but never really learned about her contributions to better nursing and health care. This short and delightful book is an informative biography of her life. It's amazing what she accomplished and I wish more people would know more about her life's work and lasting contribution to society.

[Kelly Lachmund · Rating 4 out of 5]

Too Short for Such an Extraordinary Woman

I understand the necessity of shorter biographies, but I would certainly recommend a longer, more in depth one on the life of such an extraordinary woman.

Well written, but at times felt rushed. A nice start to dip your feet into the world of Florence Nightingale.

[Bob Busch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read: I learned a lot

This book opened my eyes to what it was that drove Florence Nightingale to push for the reforms that she did. There is much in this book that I would imagine a lot of people know nothing about. I highly recommend reading this book even if just for a very brief history of nursing as we know it today.

[Siobhan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good Information

As a young girl, learning about Florence Nightingale had a strong impact on me. This text gave me the chance to refresh my limited knowledge and gain new information. A quick read, this book has renewed my awe of the inspirational woman.

[Michaela · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was very good . If you want to learn about Florence nightingale this is a book I would recommend. I never knew much about her but i am glad that I read this book . We could all learn something from her character. Too bad there isn't too many people like her .

[Susan Matthews · Rating 5 out of 5]

Florence Nightingale: A Life inspired

I knew bits and pieces of her life. This book was very informative and was a very easy read. We really do have a lot to thank Florence Nightingale for.

[Gayle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was a nice, little biography of Florence Nightingale. I learned many things I didn't know and I respect her even more than I did previously. She was quite ill for the better portion of her life yet she still managed to do so much good work. I recommend this book.

[Patti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing woman!

Florence Nightingale accomplished so much in her lifetime to help humanity. Lynn Hamilton is an excellent writer. For me, biographies can be a bit tedious but this book was not at all. A very interesting and informative book. Thank you.

[Sian Bradshaw · Rating 1 out of 5]

A very short book and barely an introduction. And why a book written about a woman breaking barriers in a man’s world, and by a woman needs to be narrated by a man, remains to be explained.

I will read far more in-depth versions than this but I can’t recommend it as a starter.