Florence NightingaleToday is the birthday of Florence Nightingale. She was born in 1820 in Florence, Italy to wealthy British parents. She died at the age of 90 in London, England having transformed the world. Wikipedia has a great article on her so I am not going to go into details.

At a time when all upper class British women were expected to marry, she refused her suitors and dedicated her life to nursing. Nightingale went to Turkey to help care for British forces during the Crimean War. “Within 6 months of her arrival in Scutari [today part of Istanbul], the mortality rate dropped from 42 percent to 2.2 percent.” It was through her care and her use of statistics to determine what worked best to care for her patients that she was able to achieve what no one else could achieve.

She is a ‘ministering angel’ without any exaggeration in these hospitals, and as her slender form glides quietly along each corridor, every poor fellow’s face softens with gratitude at the sight of her. When all the medical officers have retired for the night and silence and darkness have settled down upon those miles of prostrate sick, she may be observed alone, with a little lamp in her hand, making her solitary rounds.
— The Times

Lo! in that hour of misery
A lady with a lamp I see
Pass through the glimmering gloom,
And flit from room to room.
— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

So kiss a nurse today in gratitude for what they do.