Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale (The Lady with the Lamp) was commissioned to work in the hospitals of the Crimean War (1854 – 56). It was here she found that wounded soldiers were dying not from their injuries but the from illnesses they were getting from the unsanitary conditions and the lack of care. Nightingale and her nurses set about cleaning up the hospitals and providing proper are for the soldiers. Upon return from the war, she single handily transformed the nursing profession into a highly skilled and well respected medical profession and thus improved the cleanliness and care of paitents in hospitals.