The legacy of Florence Nightingale's educational reforms for nursing

Although Florence Nightingale became an expert in many areas of health care, including hospital design and public health, it is her contribution nationally and internationally to the development of nursing as a profession for which she will best be remembered.

Nightingale's establishment of the world's first modern secular school of nursing at St Thomas's Hospital, London, in 1860 marked the start of a nursing revolution that ultimately led to the creation of a new profession for women. Her experiment in the formal education of nurses spread beyond the boundaries of Britain to be emulated worldwide. This prompt adoption by many nations of her school of nursing concept was facilitated through the activities of those who became known as the Nightingale disciples.

Civilian nursing was not high on Nightingale's agenda after her return from the Crimean War, nonetheless the public outpouring of gratitude had resulted in the creation of the Nightingale Fund, equivalent to about £5.7 million today. When a decision was made to rebuild St Thomas's Hospital on a site across the Thames from the Palace of Westminster, Nightingale decided that this was the perfect opportunity to use the fund to develop the first purpose-built school of nursing within its grounds. Until the new hospital site became available, she used a building within the grounds of the old hospital site near London Bridge. The first 25 probationers commenced their one-year training course in 1860, but in 1862 the school was moved to Surrey Gardens near the Oval Cricket Ground, where it stayed for 8 years. In 1870, the purpose-built Nightingale Home and Training School for Nurses opened within the grounds of the new St Thomas's Hospital, remaining there until its amalgamation into King's College (part of the University of London) in 1996. It is situated on the south side of Waterloo Bridge adjacent to the old Royal Waterloo Hospital for Children and Women.