Florence Nightingale: creator of modern nursing and public health pioneer

In starting this series of articles on distinguished women in nursing, medicine and the related healthcare professions, the choice of the first name is obvious. Florence Nightingale is, I suggest, the most famous female in the long history of medicine and is a name that is known and revered throughout the world. Most people--even those in 'the trade'--think of her as 'the lady with the lamp', the heroine who went out to the Crimean War and nursed the sick and wounded at Scutari. Important though this was, her main contribution was her continued work, long after the war, in nursing organisation and training, hospital planning, public and military health and her pioneering work in the efficient gathering of medical statistics.