Florence Nightingale: The Making of an Icon

Florence Nightingale: The Making of an Icon by Mark Bostridge

This biography of Florence Nightingale is long on quotes and short on narrative. There are many random opinions that Nightingale had of people in her life, but little that illuminates her mission. From the narrative, she lived as a rich girl in England. She traveled a bit. She liked how nuns had a mission to attend to the sick and liked the idea of helping the sick. She went to Crimea, and encouraged Britain to have cleaner hospitals and get women to attend to the sick. Then she became hugely famous. People gave her money and she did more to formalize nursing as a "women's profession" She also advocated for other issues such as Indian farming. She did not like to be admired or made famous. She died. People made statues of her and admired her. Later people would turn on her. Nursing ended up going in a way different than what she advocated.

in the book it is unclear why she received so much fame and credit. There is also little mention of her use of statistics and the importance in reforms. 

It does seem that many of the negatives she identified are now present in the system. Many medical professionals are in it for the money, rather than for the care of others. A medical career requires extensive "book" education rather than on-the-job training. It is difficult for working class people to become nurses, let alone doctors. Poor sanitary conditions in hospitals lead to many illnesses and complications.