Florence Nightingale & The Crimean War
A Public Lecture by Dr Virginia Furner
“Two figures emerged from the Crimea as heroic – the soldier and the nurse”
Cecil Woodham Smith
The Crimean War (October 1853-February1856) was a pivotal event in military history. But who remembers who fought it, what it was all about, why it was relatively brief, who ultimately won and what are the legacies of the war that are still relevant more than 150 years later?
The legacy of Florence Nightingale OM RRC DStJ for modern nursing is outstanding and continues to the present day. Her participation in the Crimean War was instrumental in enabling her to establish the principles of modern health care and nursing, and social reform.
About the Presenter
Dr Furner has been an HIV/AIDS Specialist at The Albion Centre in Sydney for the past 37 years. Virginia has considerable experience in lecturing to undergraduate medical students at the four universities in Sydney. She has also provided postgraduate training to medical colleagues from many parts of South East Asia. She has worked in Darwin, and was a medical advisor with WHO in Thailand.
Virginia has always had an interest in military history, and has visited over 60 military museums worldwide with her husband Major Paul Handel RFD (Ret’d). This is the first in a series of presentations that Virginia has prepared, focusing on advances that have arisen in medicine and in patient care, directly or indirectly, as a consequence of armed conflict. This presentation will focus on the wonderful legacy to nursing of Florence Nightingale OM, her involvement in the Crimean War and her connection to Sydney.
