On 7th November 2022, the President of India presented the National Florence Nightingale Awards for the year 2021 to the Nursing professionals at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare started the award in 1973 as a mark of recognition for the meritorious services provided by nurses and nursing professionals to society.
Florence Nightingale
She was an English social reformer, statistician and the founder of modern nursing.
She served as a manager and trainer of nurses during the Crimean War (1853-56), She significantly reduced death rates by improving hygiene and living standards.
She gave nursing a favorable reputation and became an icon of "The Lady with the Lamp" making rounds of wounded soldiers at night.
In 1860, she laid the foundation of professional nursing with the establishment of her nursing school in London. It was the first secular nursing school in the world and is now part of King's College London.
In her honour, the annual International Nurses Day is celebrated on her birthday on 12th May.
Her social reforms included improving healthcare for all sections of British society, advocating better hunger relief in India, helping to abolish prostitution laws that were harsh for women, and expanding the acceptable forms of female participation in the workforce.
She was a pioneer in statistics; she represented her analysis in graphical forms to ease drawing conclusions and actionable data.
In her lifetime, much of her published work was concerned with spreading medical knowledge.
