International Nurses Day, annual observance held on May 12 that commemorates the birth in 1820 of Florence Nightingale, the foundational philosopher of modern nursing. The event, established in 1974 by the International Council of Nurses (ICN), also serves to highlight the important role nurses fulfill in health care.
Nightingale became an important figure in nursing in the 1850s during the Crimean War. At that time she was stationed at the Barrack Hospital at Scutari (Üsküdar; now a district of Istanbul), where she headed a group of nurses that cared for injured British soldiers. When she first arrived at the hospital, she was ... (100 of 548 words)