FAMOUS NURSES IN HISTORY

WALT WHITMAN AMERICAN 1819-1892

Not perhaps a figure you would expect to see on this list but as well as being a renowned poet, author and journalist, Walt Whitman was also an accomplished volunteer nurse during the American Civil War. He witnessed many horrific sights, which he later wrote about in Memoranda During The War. During the bloody conflict Whitman visited both Union and Confederate soldiers and estimated he’d spoken to some “100,000 soldiers at 600 hospitals”.

EDITHCAVELL BRITISH 1865-1915

An example of a nurse who refused to discriminate between sides during wartime, Edith