Florence Nightingale
(12 May 1820 – 13 August 1910) was a pioneering English nurse during the 19th century and is often considered the founder of modern nursing. Florence Nightingale is best known for her work during the Crimean War, where she and her team of nurses improved sanitary conditions in military hospitals, reducing the death rate significantly.
Her efforts led to significant advancements in healthcare and nursing practices. She is also remembered for her dedication to patient care, her role in healthcare reform, and her contributions to statistical analysis in the field of nursing. Nightingale's work had a profound and lasting impact on the nursing profession and healthcare as a whole.
Nightingale wrote Notes On Nursing which was a guide for proper nursing for those at home (which would eventually be used for nursing outside of the home) and created one of the earliest pie charts to document sanitation during the war.
Also advocated for better hunger relief in India, the abolition of prostitution laws that were harsh for women, and expanding female participation in the workforce.
Trope Namer
- Florence Nightingale Effect: Averted as she herself never fell victim to this (in fact, she was reportedly chaste and, despite multiple suitors, avoided getting into a relationship out of fear that it would interfere with her nursing career) and, if anything, would have been shocked by such an abuse of patient rights.
Florence Nightingale appears in the following works:
- Florence Nightingale's voice was saved for posterity in a phonograph recording from 1890 preserved in the British Library Sound Archive.
- The first theatrical representation of Nightingale was Reginald Berkeley's The Lady with the Lamp, premiering in London in 1929 with Edith Evans in the title role. It did not portray her as an entirely sympathetic character and draws much characterisation from Lytton Strachey's biography of her.
- The Lady with the Lamp (1951), an adaptation of the play above.
- The Voyage of the Lass (2009), A stage musical play representation of Nightingale produced by the Association of Nursing Service Administrators of the Philippines.
- The Victoria Cross (1912), a biographical silent film starring Julia Swayne Gordon as Nightingale.
- Florence Nightingale (1915), played by Elisabeth Risdon.
- She appears in both the U.S. & U.K. versions of Drunk History:
- She first appears in the U.K. version told by Diane Morgan of Philomena Cunk fame starring Jessica Knappett as Florence Nightingale.
- She appears in the U.S. version told by Paget Brewster and played by Minka Kelly.
- The White Angel (1936), played by Kay Francis.
- In 1993, Nest Entertainment released an animated film about Florence Nightingale.
- Florence Nightingale (2008) played by Laura Fraser.
- Appeared in Mary Seacole: The Real Angel of the Crimea (2006) who is portrayed as a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing who acts narrow-minded and opposed to Seacole's efforts.
- Played by Laura Morgan in the Victoria episode "Foreign Bodies" (2018)
- Played by Kate Isitt in the Magic Grandad episode "Famous People: Florence Nightingale" (1994)
- Played by Jaclyn Smith in the TV biopic Florence Nightingale (1985)
- Played by Emma Thompson in the ITV sketch comedy series Alfresco episode #1.2 (1983)
- Played by Jayne Meadows in PBS series Meeting of Minds (1978)
- Played by Janet Suzman in the British theatre-style biopic Miss Nightingale (1974)
- Played by Julie Harris in Hallmark Hall of Fame episode "The Holy Terror" (1965)
- Played by Sarah Churchill in Hallmark Hall of Fame episode "Florence Nightingale" (1952)
- Appears in an episode of Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum "I Am Florence Nightingale".
- Appears as a Berserker-class Servant in Fate/Grand Order with voiceover provided by Miyuki Sawashiro. She is portrayed as an overfocused healer who defies all reason in order to heal a patient, though due to being born in an older era, her solutions tend to boil down to 'amputate the patient'. During a Christmas event, she later becomes a Archer who emulates both Santa Claus and Mary Poppins.
- The War of Greedy Witches: She is one of the women summoned to participate in the Walpurgis tournament.
- The Laws of Eternity: She's portrayed as a "Crimean angel" from the Bodhisattva Realm according to Happy Science's beliefs on the Spirit World.
- Nobunagun: She is revealed to be the true identity of Jack the Ripper. She was reluctantly killing women who were unknowingly infected with a deadly man-made biological weapon to prevent the disease from spreading to the rest of the population. Since the ordinary folk would have never believed her, she kept to the shadows and allowed the legend of the Ripper to spread.
