Florence Nightingale

Florence Nightingale (1820–1910) is the founder of modern nursing — transforming it from a low-status occupation into a trained profession, and pioneering the use of statistical evidence to improve health outcomes. During the Crimean War (1853-56), she organized sanitation and nursing at the Barrack Hospital in Scutari, reducing the death rate from 42% to 2% through hygiene improvements. Nightingale invented the polar area chart (a type of pie chart) to visualize the causes of soldier deaths — demonstrating statistically that more soldiers were dying from preventable disease than wounds. This pioneering data visualization persuaded the British government to reform military hospitals. She founded the first secular nursing school (St Thomas' Hospital, London, 1860) and wrote 'Notes on Nursing' — the foundational text of the profession. The modern nursing oath is named the Nightingale Pledge in her honor.