Within six months after the nurses arrived at Scutari, the site where the wounded and ill soldiers of the Crimean War were housed, the death rate had been reduced from 60% to an amazing two percent. By the end of the war the death rate had dropped to one percent. Florence Nightingale and her nurses had accomplished the impossible! Ms. Nightingale became a true hero to the soldiers, and to their families and friends back in England.
Because she made rounds of the soldiers long after everyone else was asleep, the press referred to her as "The Lady with the Lamp." Ms. Nightingale not only cared for the physical needs of her patients, but she also began to look out for their social welfare. She saw it that, for the first time, for the sick and wounded soldiers received sick pay.
Later during the war she went to the battle sites. There she contacted Crimean Fever, which some nursing historians believe affected her rest of her life. There is some controversy about what kept Ms. Nightingale confined to her quarters after the war. There is a possibility that suffered PostTraumatic Syndrome or Fatigue Syndrome or some other malady. We will probably never know for sure. Nevertheless, she was able to continue her work in nursing education and public health from her quarters.
The Nightingale Fund was started by her admires, many of whom had been soldiers during the Crimean War. It was that money that allowed her to start the first modern training school for nurses at St. Thomas Hospital in 1860. Florence Nightingale became known as the founder of modern nursing.