subject: 6 World Famous Nurses You May Not Know But Should [print this page] Nurses have demonstrated excellent role models of caring expertise,whether in war or in peace. Driven with a strong desire to serve others with compassion, nurses have proved to be indispensable over the years to tend the wounded during hostilities between nations. Here are half a dozen worlds' famous nurses in history.
*Florence Nightingale(1820-1910)leads the pack for being perhaps the most famous nurse in history. Despite her aristocratic background, she rejected marriage in preference to serving the poor. Had she not opted for nursing as a career, she would have been known as an expert mathematician for her invaluable contributions. Her painstaking efforts to reform the British Military Health System are still remembered to this day.
*Mary Seacole(1805-1881) was of mixed racial heritage from Jamaica with a difficult upbringing. Armed with naturopathy inputs from her mother and a strong desire to opt for nursing as a profession, she flung herself into action treating the wounded soldiers of the Crimean war, alongside Florence Nightingale. She had the hidden streak of a writer too, which got reflected in her autobiography, Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands.
*Mary Todd Lincoln (1818-1882) despite being the famous president Abraham Lincoln's wife and a woman of letters, found solace in tending the wounded soldiers of the Civil War.
*Clara Barton (1821-1921) is deemed to be one of the most famous women in American History as the founder of the Red Cross. A chance accident in her family at the tender age of 11 necessitating nursing her injured brother, when he fell while working on a barn drew her to nursing as a lifelong profession.
*Mary Eliza Mahoney(1845-1926) was the first registered nurse of Afro-American origin. American Nurses Association owes its existence to her for being the co-founder of its predecessor, the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses. The Mary Mahoney Award is instituted in her memory for recognition of good service and medical care to patients.
*Elizabeth Grace Neill (1846-1926) was Scottish by birth but later got domiciled in Australia and New Zealand. Witnessing the nursing profession in disarray as a working journalist, she switched over to nursing. Consequent upon her qualifying as a nurse, she is credited for introducing a system for registration of nurses in approved hospitals and training centers all over New Zealand.
History is replete with examples of ordinary mortals from various walks of life having made a mark for themselves on the Nursing firmament. Why not YOU?
