Public Health

How did the Crimean War improve

conditions in hospitals?

The Crimean War was fought by Britain,

France and Turkey against Russia between
1854-56. The British public were scandalised
by newspaper reports about the treatment of
wounded soldiers in the Barrack Hospital in
Scutari near Istanbul. With the newly invented
telegraph, The Times war correspondent,
William Russell, was able to provide vivid, up- Crimean War, Russia.
Appalling conditions are depicted
to-date reports of conditions.

At the hospital soldiers were left lying on bare

floors; there were no supplies of any kind and
they had no more than one meal a day, if
that. There were no lavatories or sanitation
and no nurses or bandages. Men were left to
die in great pain without any medical
attention.

The Secretary of State for War, Sidney

Herbert, asked Florence Nightingale to go to
A typical Nightingale ward (c.1910)
Scutari to superintend the hospital. Before
she arrived, more men were dying of fever
and infection than from fighting. Even so, army doctors, worried about the
effect on the soldiers' discipline, did not welcome her and her 38 nurses, but
all the same she and her team made great improvements very quickly.

Florence Nightingale enforced rules on cleanliness, introduced special diets,

improved the water supply and made sure there was enough food and gave
the men proper nursing care. Two years after her arrival, the death rate at the
hospital was two per cent. It had been 40 per cent when she arrived.

Another nurse, Mary Seacole, also went to the Crimea and at her own
expense set up a medical store and hostel near Balaclava and also nursed
the wounded on the battlefield, but, in spite of her popularity with soldiers, was
not invited to join Florence Nightingale.

Think about this:

• How war can often act as a catalyst for change

• How the role of individuals can affect change
• The development of the nursing profession met with opposition and
why this would be.