Video of the day

I'm downloading "bible story" stuff for Rubie, who home schools (and Who hates reading the Bible but loves stories).

And I came across this video, about Florence Nightingale, which is not too preachy and does show how brave she was (not only in facing down disease, but in facing down those in charge).




In those days, the only one who would nurse sick people in hospitals were nuns (Anglican or Catholic or Lutheran Deaconesses) or drunks...what FN did was make nursing a profession by stressing professional training.

more here:

Florence to lead a group of 38 nurses there. Of these, 10 were Roman Catholic nuns, 14 were Anglican nuns, and the remaining 14 were "of no particular religion, unless one counts the worship of Bacchus."

They found conditions appalling. Blankets were rotting in warehouses while the men did without, because no one had issued the proper forms for their distribution. The lavatories in the hospitals had no running water, and the latrines were tubs to be emptied by hand. But no one emptied them, since official regulations did not specify which department was responsible for doing so. The result was that the hospital had a foul stench that could be smelled for some distance outside its walls. Far more men were dying in hospitals of infection than of wounds.