Illustration of the British nurse, humanitarian and hospital reformer Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) attending a patient. Nightingale is credited with establishing the foundations of modern nursing. Already an experienced nurse, she was appointed director of nursing operations at the war front during the Crimean War (1854-1856). There, her efforts to improve sanitation in the military hospitals drastically reduced the mortality rate among the sick. In 1860, on her return to England, she wrote the textbook 'Notes on Nursing'.