Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery Information

The Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery and Palliative Care is an academic faculty within Kings College London. The faculty is the worlds first nursing school to be continuously connected to a fully serving hospital and medical school (St. Thomas Hospital). Established on 9 July 1860 by Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, it was a model for many similar training schools through the UK, Commonwealth and other countries for the latter half of the 19th century. It is primarily concerned with the education of people to become nurses and midwives. It also carries out nursing research, continuing professional development and postgraduate programmes. The Faculty forms part of the Waterloo campus on the South Bank of the River Thames and is now one of the largest faculties in the university.

The school is ranked as the number one faculty for nursing in London and in the United Kingdom whilst third in the world rankings and belongs to one of the leading universities in health services, policy and research in the world. A freedom-of-information request in 2015 disclosed that the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery had one of the lowest admission offer rates of 14% to its applicants.

The faculty specialises in the following areas: child and adolescent nursing; midwifery and womens health; adult nursing; mental health nursing; and postgraduate research, with programmes catering to the needs of a wider range of individuals and healthcare professionals continuing their professional development.

Inspired by Florence Nightingale and her nurses work during the Crimean War, a fund was set up in 1855 by members of the public to raise money for her work. By June 1856, £44,039 (equivalent to over £4.26 million in 2016) was raised. Nightingale decided to use the money to set up a training school at St Thomas Hospital. The first nurses began their training on 9 July 1860. Graduates of the school were used to be called Nightingales.

When Nightingales school for nurses was initially set up, under the direction of Mrs Wardroper, the hospital matron, the students had a typical training period lasting a year. Students normally lived in-house; whilst having their own private rooms, a common room for lounge or socials was provided in the hospitals special area. The students attended their classes/patients at St. Thomas Hospital. Around twenty to thirty students were accepted in a year, whose probationary period fall under two classifications. A common class woman who serves as student, upon completion, would receive a certain small amount of money plus a placement in a home or institution. An upper class woman or Lady, on the other hand, would have completed some education and would be given the opportunity to assist in the school. Uniforms were provided at any case, and they would be under the charge of a matron (and an assistant). Upon graduation, they would be given a chance to visit Florence Nightingale in her South Street apartment, a momentous occasion for few people to meet her in person, especially since Nightingales profile has been made well-known nationwide after the Crimean War. Nightingale kept extensive notes on all the students in the school, including their character. She has placed certain importance to character; should there be any issue about ones character, the certification of such nurse would be opposed to.

Between 1860 and 1903 the school certified 1,907 nurses as having had one years training. Many of the trainees went on to be matrons or superintendents of nursing.

Over the years, the training and the school itself went through a series of changes, mergers and expansions. The curriculum for nurses has changed enormously since. Further, in 1991, the school merged with Olive Haydon School of Midwifery and the Thomas Guy and Lewisham School of Nursing, creating the Nightingale and Guys College of Nursing and Midwifery. The following year the name changed to the Nightingale College of Health. In 1993, it merged with Kings College Hospital School of Nursing at Normanby College and formed the Nightingale Institute. In 1996, the Institute was fully integrated into Kings College London and was combined with the universitys Department of Nursing Studies two years later to form the Florence Nightingale Division of Nursing and Midwifery. In 1999 it was renamed the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery. In September 2014 the school changed its name to the "Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery". In 2017 the Cicely Saunders Institute at Kings moved from the Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine to join with the Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery. The Faculty was renamed the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery and Palliative Care.

Coordinates: 51°30′18″N 0°06′45″W / 51.5049°N 0.1126°W / 51.5049; -0.1126

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