Florence Nightingale: “The Mother of Modern Nursing”
Lora Sahmarani
Senior Division
Individual Website
Last year, while my history class was picking topics for MLARC, I didn’t know
what to do and couldn’t think of anyone/anything that interested me and qualified for
NHD, so I began asking around. One of my friends told me that she was doing Clara
Barton, so I searched her name into Google. On the “People Also Search For”, I clicked
on the name of “Florence Nightingale” because I had heard that name before. Florence
Nightingale was not only my lifesaver for MLARC and NHD, but also, literally, life! She
had incredible primary sources with multiple websites and articles due to her being such a
big name in the medical field. Florence Nightingale was a positive leader, advocate, and a
medical reformer. She contributed to the many revolutionary changes in hospitals that are
being used to this day with complete success.
Starting off my research, I went home and immediately surfed the web. I found
numerous websites, like Spartacus Educational, newspapers, like the New York Times,
and pictures, like portraits and writings, and saved them right away onto a new note. I
then began typing a few notes for each media type, in which I found extremely helpful.
After finding all the electronic sources that I thought were useful, I then went to the
public library and requested books that I picked up later in the week, including books and
pictures that I used in my website.
I selected my website by going online and finding as many primary source
photographs as I could get. I found around 13 the first day I started and it escalated from
there. I then went on to fix the draft of my NHD to pull out some good text for certain
areas of my website. When first starting the website, I had no idea how to work Weebly,
but, eventually, I learned how to create a Weebly, which is amazing! I then went on to
surf through the websites I chose for some good quotes to add and cited everything that I
used at a steady pace. Afterwards, I asked people if they wouldn’t mind looking over my
website and received some constructive criticism from them, which helped out extremely.
I changed the backgrounds and colors to fit the theme of older and modern pictures and
colors.
Florence Nightingale fits the theme of Leadership and Legacy because she was
one of the biggest medical reformers in history! She lowered the death rate of the
Crimean War by about 20% during the first six months! She also created a fund that
raised money for food and water, which changed the current diets of the patients for the
better. When I first started my NHD, I focused on Nightingale’s contributions and
reforms, and still am with my website because I felt like her reforms connects to many
other parts, like the hospital’s backgrounds and other wars.