Ward sister

Nursing in the United Kingdom has a long history. The current form of nursing is often considered as beginning with Florence Nightingale who pioneered 'modern nursing'. Florence Nightingale initiated formal schools of nursing in the United Kingdom in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The role and perception of nursing has dramatically changed from that of 'handmaiden' to the doctor to professionals in their own right. There are over 300,000 nurses in the United Kingdom and they work in a variety of settings; hospitals, health centres, nursing homes, hospices, communities, academia etc. with most nurses working for the National Health Service (NHS). Nurses work across all demographics and requirements of the public; Adults and Children and mental health. Nurses work in a range of specialties from the broad areas of medicine, surgery, theatres, investigative sciences such as imaging, neo-natal etc. Nurses also work in a large areas of sub-specialities such as respiratory, diabetes, neurology, infectious diseases, liver, research, cardiac etc. Nurses often work in multi-disciplinary teams but increasingly are found working independently.

To practise, all nurses in the United Kingdom must be registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).

Florence Nightingale is regarded as the founder of the modern nursing profession. There was no real hospital training school for nurses until one was established in Kaiserwerth, Germany, in 1846. There, Nightingale received the training that later enabled her to establish, at St Thomas' Hospital in London, the first school designed primarily to train nurses rather than to provide nursing service for the hospital.

In the Crimean War against Russia, Nightingale was appointed to oversee the introduction of female nurses into the military hospitals in Turkey, after criticisms in the British press. In November 1854, Nightingale arrived at the barrack hospital near Constantinople, with a party of 38 nurses. Initially the doctors did not want the nurses there and did not ask for their help, but within ten days fresh casualties arrived from the Battle of Inkermann and the nurses were fully stretched. When Nightingale returned from the Crimean War in August 1856, she hid herself away from the public's attention. For her contribution to Army statistics and comparative hospital statistics in 1860, Nightingale became the first woman to be elected a Fellow of the Statistical Society.

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