A person well known I admire is Florence Nightingale

http://www.florence-nightingale.co.uk/flo2.htm

Florence Nightingale was born in Italy on 1820 and lived in a wealthy family. Florence Nightingale was an academic child and grew up to be a lively and attractive woman. Florence Nightingale developed an interest in the social questions of the years of struggle in 1837. Her parents refused to allow her to become a nurse as in the mid-nineteenth century it was not considered a suitable profession for a well educated woman.

In March 1854 Britain, France and Turkey declared war on Russia. The Minister of the battle appointed Florence Nightingale to oversea into the military hospital. Within ten days fresh casulties arrived from the battle and the nurses were fully streched. Florence Nightingale's hard work was an outstanding success and gained the undying respect of the British soldiers.

Florence Nightingale's greatest achievment was to raise nursing to the level of a respectable profession for women.With the public subscriptions of the Nightingale Fund, she established training school. Florence Nightingale dovoted closer attention to the school and almost annually to the next thirty years she wrote open letters to give advice and encouragement.

In 1860 her best known work'Notes on Nursing' was published. It laid down the principles of nursing: careful obervation and sensitivity to the patient's needs. 'Notes on Nursing' has been translated into eleven foreign languages and is still in print today. Miss Nightingale believed that public health led to improvements in healthier living and working environments.

Although Miss Nightingale was bedridden for many years, she campaigned tirelessly to improve health standards, publishing 200 books, reportes and so on. In her old age she received many honours. Miss Nightingale's farsighted reforms have influenced the nature of modern health care and her writings continue to be a resource for nurses, health managers and planners.