Do You Agree with the View That Mary Seacole , and Not Florence Nightingale , Was the Real ‘Angle of Mercy’ During the Crimean War?

For decades, America has fought in many different wars with the need of health assistance for their soldiers. The American Red Cross is a worldwide organization that helped during the times of war but also provided a path for scientific advancements. Through the American Red Cross and other organizations of this time, they opened up the doors for women to take the chance to advance in the medical field by participating in scientific experiments and being at the aide of wounded soldiers. During this time of scrutiny, the Great War was a hidden opportunity for the encroachment of medical research with the contribution to the expansion of nursing.

Nursing was even harder for women whose skin color did not favor them at the time, due to racism. A great example was Mary Seacole, a woman with a great determination to cure the sick and tend to the injured. After the many letters sent to Florence Nightingale, Mary Seacole receive a letter denying her petition to be part of her team of nurses (Carnegie, 1995). This could have been a setback for an ordinary person, but it did not stop well-determined Mary Seacole, she was everything but ordinary. Her persistence to serve those in need of medical care let her to travel more than 3000 miles to Crimea. With limited resources, she bought and opened a lodging house, in which she took care of the wounded soldiers (Carnegie, 1995). Long after the war was over, she received recognition for taking care of the wounded.

Nightingale, F. (1860).Notes on nursing: what it is and what it is not. New York:D.Appleton And Company.

However, Florence Nightingale changed nursing practice, where she was commonly referred to as lady of the lamp (Finkelman and Kenner, 2013). Nightingale established a domestic mode of nursing training in which education of nurses was about the information of character at the Saint Thomas Hospital (Carol, 2011). According to Nightingale the tasks of every nurse was not only to care for the sick but to act as a public agent of moral reform, and to weaken the power of medical men (Nelson, 2010). Rafferty (1996) argue that, nursing

Florence Nightingale was an immense impact on nursing, who “became famous for her revolutionary work as a nurse during the Crimean War” (Kent 30). “She dedicated her life to improving conditions in hospitals, beginning in an army hospital during the Crimean War,” (3 Registered). Her actions were then used by “concerned individuals, rather than by professionally trained nurses” during the Civil War, (Registered 279). Many of Nightingale’s ideas were brought into modern times, but with the improvement of technology and licensed nurses. With the influence and patience of Florence Nightingale, nursing has evolved into an outstanding career.

The incidence which is mostly remembered in reference to the services of Florence Nightingale is the leadership of Florence Nightingale after the war, after her death her biographers called her “lady with the lamp”. The readings on Florence Nightingale will depict that she was a great social activist. She was continuously involved in the services to help and nurture mankind. She possessed a heart of an angel. Nightingales activities were related to her belief that one should try to help humanity in order to be near to the God. She really loved her God and all her writings were related to this topic. As stated by Nightingale "It is not, God will not punish, we shall therefore not surely die. It is, God loves us, and therefore why will we die? One says that God is careless, the other that He is loving." In an unpublished sermon she insisted on God's "real personal interest in our welfare," not just His "mercy generally." It was hard to believe this, she acknowledged, "But if this belief once takes possession of our hearts, then are we redeemed indeed."

These early nurses were quickly educated on the rigors of war and the primitive accommodations. Hundreds of women lasted little more than a month and for those that did last the work became gratifying and their Christian mission. At the bloodiest moments of the war, nurses braved heat of moment and offered selflessly to treat injured. These ladies

For instance, " Clara Barton's life of service has been a role model for generations of, nurses, teachers, social workers, doctors, and allied health professionals" this shows that after her life of helping others besides the risks Clara Barton was a role model for many people because she founded the Red Cross and represented the Idea that a woman can do just as much as a man can do . In addition, " she also cared for wounded soldiers at Antietam. Barton was nicknamed "the angel of the battle field" for her work" this shows that Clara impacted others just by helping them medically she was devoted to helping people. Clara Barton impacted others in a positive

Clara Burton, also known as the “Angel of the Battlefield”, started out working in the federal government in the patent office. She was the first woman to ever hold senior clerkship, but once the war broke out, she gave up her job and went to help tend to the sick and wounded soldiers. She earned her nickname by riding around the battlefield delivering supplies and helping soldiers wherever she went. Due to her hard work, in 1864 she was appointed to Superintendent of the Female Nurses for the Union Army.

Florence Nightingale, born in 1820, revolutionized nursing as it is today. Throughout her time working with the wounded soldiers during the Crimean War, she noted that more soldiers were dying of infections than from wounds. Therefore, she worked to ensure sanitation as well as sufficient health and healing practices amongst her patients. From care to prevention, Nightingale’s practices were able to set the foundation for nurses today. Nightingale distinguished that a healthy environment is essential to one’s health and thus her tenets of ventilation, cleanliness, light, as well as nutrition set the bases of the City of Toronto’s tuberculosis program for the under-housed, homeless, and the correctional population.

However, in the 19th century flounce Nightingale changed nursing practice, where she was commonly referred to as lady of the lamp.(Finkelman and Kenner,2013). Nightingale established a domestic mode of nursing training in which education of nurses was about the information of character at the Saint Thomas Hospital (Carol, 2011). According to Nightingale the tasks of every nurse was not only to care for the sick but to act as a public agent of moral reform, and to weaken the power of medical men (Nelson, 2010). Rafferty (1996) argue that, nursing education established in the 19th centuries was a sign of inspirational moral values and virtues, which persist that, modern education of nursing lies in the middle of professional work that can dwell in an essential point in the influential of occupational culture and politics of

Mary Seacole is praised in both sources 1 and 2, but in source 3 it seems that Nightingale disagrees in terms of her method of helping the men, although ‘she did some good.’

Throughout history, society has considered women to be the natural caregivers of children, family, and community. Women were naturally thought of as nurses because the act was said to be an extension of their role in the home. They were called in to homes to help deliver babies or as wet nurses to breastfeed. In the 1800’s, women began taking care of soldiers. It was then that Florence Nightingale cared for soldiers in the Crimean War. During this time she revolutionized the role by setting standards of cleanliness and reducing infection. The legacy of nursing continues to be enriched by those who continue to follow the example of nursing pioneers. They refuse to be bound by others’ views

Florence Nightingale has impacted the “art and science” of present day nursing, as well as during her time. Nightingale had focused on the importance of light on patients within chapter nine. She states, “What hurts them most is a dark

Florence Nightingale changed the public's views of a woman's potential and capabilities in her era. Victorian women of her age group did not attend universities or pursue professional careers . The success of the Scutari post was amazing, and the fact that a woman achieved these feats was even more astounding to her peers. Nightingale was the first woman to be given the British Order of Merit, in 1907 for her work . From Nightingale's example, it could be seen that a woman achieving spectacular results was indeed possible, and the inferiority of the female gender was now in question. Florence Nightingale became a role model for other nurses around her. Linda Richards, who visited Ms. Nightingale at her home in England in 1877, said,