In 1851 at the age of 31, Florence Nightingale spent three months as a student of nursing at the Kaiserswerth Hospital in Germany. The school was run by Pastor Theodore Fliedner and his wife, Fredericke Fliedner. The Fliedners were well respected for their work and the Deaconesses, as the graduates were called, were requested for positions around the globe. The Fliedners started the Deaconess orders in England and the United States in 1846 and 1850 respectively. The Fliedners remain the leading Protestant nursing order.
Florence Nightingale continued to visit hospital in Germany and learn as much as she could about every detail of their operations. She became an expert on hospitals and public health. On a trip to the continent she was introduced to Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Herbert, advocates of hospital reform. They were impressed with her vast knowledge about the care of the ill. It was Sir Sidney Herbert who selected Ms. Nightingale to lead the nurses who would go to Scutari during the Crimean War.