The English Nurse Who Reduced the Death Rate at the British Military Hospital at Scutari From 42 Percent to 2 Percent Across Six Months in 1854-1855
Florence Nightingale arrived at the Scutari military hospital outside Constantinople on 4 November 1854 with 38 trained nurses to handle British casualties from the Crimean War. The death rate from disease in the overcrowded wards was 42 percent. Six months of systematic reform — hand-washing, ventilation, sewer cleaning, nutrition — brought it to 2 percent. Modern nursing dates its institutional origin from this campaign.
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