May 12 is International Nurses Day in honor of Florence Nightingale (12 May 1820 – 13 August 1910,) British social reformer, statistician, and the founder of modern nursing.

Nightingale came to prominence during the Crimean War by organizing and training nurses to tend the wounded. In 1860, she established the first secular nursing school at St. Thomas’s Hospital in London. Her social reforms include improving healthcare for all sections of British society, advocating better hunger relief in India, helping to abolish prostitution laws that were over-harsh to women, and expanding the acceptable forms of female participation in the workforce.

Nightingale was a prodigious and versatile writer. In her lifetime, much of her published work was concerned with spreading medical knowledge. Some of her tracts were written in simple English so that they could easily be understood by those with poor literary skills. She was also a pioneer in the use of infographics, effectively using graphical presentations of statistical data. Much of her writing, including her extensive work on religion and mysticism, has only been published posthumously.

Summarized from Wikipedia.

The 2018 theme for International Nurses Day is A Voice to Lead: Health is a Human Right. Find out more at the International Council of Nurses webstie.