Nightingale, Florence, (1820-1910), English founder of modern nursing as a profession and a pioneer of hospital reform. As a nurse in 1854 she took a party of women nurses to Scutari during the Crimean War. After the Battle of Inkerman there were four miles of wounded British soldiers to be cared for, Florence Nightingale, with lamp in hand, traversed alone each night the four miles of beds. Her experiences during the Crimean War were foundational in her views about sanitation. She established her first nursing school at St Thomas Hospital London in 1860, the Nightingale Training School for Nurses. Her efforts to reform healthcare greatly influenced the quality of care in the 19th and 20th centuries.