The Crimean War

In 1854, the Crimean War broke out, England, France and Sardinia came to the aid of Turkey against Russia. Almost at once, the British conscience was dismayed by published graphic reports of the disgraceful conditions suffered by the sick and wounded British soldiers. The most humiliating news was was that their ancient rivals, the French, had not only better hospitals, supplies and doctors, but also the Sisters of Charity to care for the wounded. Women were urged to serve as nurses like the French sisters of charity. Mr Sidney Herbert, now, secretary at war, knew just the women to meet his need. Nightingale herself had a similar idea. Nightingale was stirred by reports of the primitive sanitation methods and grossly inadequate nursing facilities at the large British barracks hospital at Uskudar, volunteering her services in Crimea. Nightingale volunteered at once to leave in three days for Constantinople, taking three nurses with her. Meanwhile, she was officially approached by her old friend, Mr Sidney Herbert to take up a larger party of nurses.

Portrait of Nightingale in 1951

The party left England on October 21, 1854 and entered the Barrack Hospital at Scutari on November 5. Nightingale found the conditions in the army hospital in Scutari appalling. They had no decent facilities. The floors and walls of the hospital were covered with filth; exposed foul-smelling sewers ran beneath the hospital; vermin and rats were everywhere. The water allowance was one pint per head per day for all purposes. She had to use the provisions brought with her. The men were kept in rooms without blankets or food. Men starved to death or perished from putrid food and patients were left to die nearly naked or in ragged uniforms soaked with own blood. Diseases such as typhus, cholera and dysentery were the main reasons why the death-rate was so high among the wounded soldiers. The doctors were hostile and hesitant in letting the nurses enter the wards.

After the battle in Inkerman, the hospital was tremendously crowded with the sick and wounded. furniture, clothing and bedding were deficient and in the corridors, men lay on straw palliasses amidst filth caused by inadequate sanitation. nightingale was then asked to help, and one of her first requisitions was for 200 scrubbing brushes. She next arranged for the patients' filthy clothes to be washed outside the hospital. Military officers and doctors objected to Nightingale's views on reforming military hospitals. They interpreted her comments as an attack on their and she was made to feel unwelcome. Nightingale received very little help from the military until she used her contacts at The Times to report details of the way the British army treated its wounded soldiers. after great publicity, Nightingale was given the task of organising the barracks hospital after the Battle of Inkerman and by improving the quality of the sanitation she was able to dramatically reduce the death-rate of her patients.

But Nightingale proved a formidable foe, quite unlike the loving lady with the lamp. Her nurses scrubbed, dressed wounds and provided and provided clean bedding and hot food. With her great mathematical ability, she reorganised and documented hospital operations, hired carpenters, she repaired the hospital and the sewage system. She spent many hours a day in the wards, and there was scarcely a man whom she had not personally attended. After 8 pm she would allow no woman in the wards except herself. The night-nursing was done by convalescent orderlies. Each night, she made her rounds, giving comfort and advices. Through her tireless efforts, the mortality rate among the sick and wounded was greatly reduced.