Table of ContentsSummaryIntroductionReferencesSummaryFlorence Nightingale comes from a wealthy family in Italy and grew up being educated by her father. She later became a nurse who pioneered the profession and changed the way people viewed it as a career only for women. Despite her parents' disapproval, she knew that nursing was her calling and she dedicated her life to helping those in need. Unlike Florence, I want to become an animal-assisted therapist and my parents have supported me every step of the way because they know this is my calling. Florence Nightingale loved animals since she was born and she integrated them into her nursing practices to contribute to the comfort of her patients, which is something I hope to accomplish in my future. In her last years of life, her cats brought her happiness and she found comfort in them during difficult times. Florence saved lives and helped those who were sick find comfort, and I hope to do the same. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayIntroductionFlorence Nightingale was born in May 1820 to a wealthy and affluent family in Florence, Italy. Florence was the youngest of three girls and was described as socially awkward and not attention-seeking (Nightingale & McDonald, 2001). Their parents were liberal humanitarians, which led Florence to grow up surrounded by the ideals of respecting and helping those in need and promoting the well-being of other human beings. Florence was educated at home with her father, knew French, German, and Italian well, and learned about the world from his point of view (New York Times, 1910). It was when a family friend, Mary Clarke, showed Florence that women and men could be equal that she began to form her own ideas about the power of women. I was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in 1999, to an upper-class family. I am an only child and I would not have wanted to grow up with brothers and sisters. I am independent and shy in social situations, always seeking to avoid being the center of attention. I attended public school in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and am currently a 2019 undergraduate student at the University of New Hampshire majoring in Psychology with a minor in Animal Behavior. Throughout her youth, Florence was an active philanthropist and sought to help the sick. and poor in his village. At the age of seventeen, during one of her trips to town, she saw a neighbor's dog with a bruised paw that was having difficulty walking after a group of young boys had thrown it at it. stones (Coren, 2010). The owner was a shepherd and would have to kill the dog if it was too injured to herd the sheep. Florence felt very upset about the dog being killed and tended to the dog's paw, saving its life. This sheepdog was the first patient she ever rescued and the feeling she felt made her realize that helping others was her calling. For most of my youth, I was shy and was always described by my mother as an "observer" to most. social situations, but that never seemed to hold me back. It wasn't until high school that my social anxiety disorder became apparent. Getting out of bed to face each day became more and more difficult as my first year progressed and I constantly fought with my parents to allow me to drop out of school. I started going to therapy and soon my vision oflife changed and I started actively working on myself to take control of my own life and my anxiety. After three long years of battling with myself, I found a confidence and strength I never thought I had within myself and I was finally in control. During my senior year of high school, I looked back on my experience and knew I couldn't be the only person struggling and feeling lost in their anxiety. I decided to write a book, “Creating Happiness: How I Survived High School with Social Anxiety Disorder,” in hopes of helping at least one person who was struggling like me. It was while writing this book that I discovered my calling for mental health awareness and a desire to help people struggling with mental illness. Florence's family believed that a woman should stay at home to be a wife and mother and that her husband should work to support the family. So when Florence announced her decision to become a nurse, they were furious. In her act of rebellion against her family's rules and social norms, Florence educated herself in all aspects of nursing. In 1847, Florence traveled across Europe to improve her nursing skills and come into contact with prominent figures in the field. In Germany, she worked with a pastor who helped the sick and poor and completed four months of medical training at the Kaiserswerth Institution on the Rhine for the practical training of deaconesses. This training became the framework for his future career. In July 1950, she volunteered in German and French hospitals, and in 1853 she became director of the Institute for Sick Women in London. Florence Nightingale is most applauded for her work during the Crimean War. In 1854, she trained thirty-eight nurses and fifteen nuns who would accompany her to work in a British base hospital caring for the wounded. Florence worked to improve the unsanitary conditions at the base and created a clean environment, provided medical equipment, clean water and fruit to patients. His work significantly reduced the mortality rate at the base (Karimi & Masoudi Alavi, 2015). Florence had never married, nor had any interest in it, as she thought it would interfere with her work (Nightingale & McDonald, 2001). At the age of thirty-eight, Florence remained bedridden for the rest of her life due to her inability to fully recover from the Crimean fever she contracted while working. Even though she was bedridden, Florence continued to achieve immense accomplishments. In 1860, she founded the Nightingale Nursing School, becoming the world's first nursing school and changing the view of nursing as a profession. She continued to write from home, describing writing as her "cornerstone". When I graduate from college, I hope to pursue a career in animal-assisted therapy. Unlike Florence, my parents recognize that this is my calling and support me every step of the way. Having a family is very important to me, which is why I feel lucky to pursue a vocation that allows me time for a husband and two children. I hope to continue my education with a master's degree from Southern New Hampshire University in clinical mental health counseling. My main goal as a therapist is to help children and adults struggling with anxiety, depression, grief and loss and to use dogs and horses as tools to facilitate the therapeutic process. Florence Nightingale was an avid animal lover. She often rescued injured animals and even transported ainjured owl that she had found with her during her travels in Europe until her death. In Nightingale's book Notes on Nursing (1860), she explains how animals contributed to the healing process of her patients; “A small pet is often an excellent companion for the sick or chronically ill, in particular.” As a child, Florence was surrounded by dogs, horses, cats, and birds and her mother said she “always had a passion for almost all kinds of creatures” (Schiller, 2008, para. 2). During her work at the British base hospital, she used cats to solve the rat problem, contributing to the change in sanitary conditions. In a letter to her mother, she wrote: “Poor Mrs. Herbert told me that her chief comfort was a little Chinese dog… who came and kissed her eyelids and licked the tears that ran down her cheeks. I remember thinking this childish. But now I don't do it anymore. My cat does the exact same thing to me. Stupid beasts observe you much more than talking beings; and I know much better what you are thinking. When she became bedridden, she lived at home surrounded by her multitude of cats. As her health deteriorated towards the end of her life, she suffered from depression and her cats became her greatest joy in life. She felt that her cats possessed more empathy than most human beings and in her most difficult times, she found comfort in having her cats by her side. She is quoted in a letter saying that when her cousin died, her cat knew something was wrong and sat with her "legs around his neck" (Woodham-Smith, 1953, p. 285). Florence Nightingale became an invalid who rarely left her room at the end of her life and died of her illness in August 1910 in London. During her life, she was a nurse, author, educator, inventor and philanthropist and was the first woman to receive the Order of Merit. Her work changed 19th and 20th century policies regarding appropriate nursing care and she inspired Dorthea Dix, the Geneva Convention and the Red Cross. Florence permanently changed the relationship between government and public health across the world (Boyd, 2008). Florence dedicated her life to caring for the sick and injured and wrote about the importance of building trusting relationships with patients, having empathy for patients, and doing everything you can to make a patient happy and make them feel like you have their best interest in mind. In my future, I hope to use his ideas in my work to create a positive patient-therapist environment. Florence's notes played a role in the creation of animal-assisted therapy, writing about her experiences with patients and with herself. She observed that animals reduced patients' anxiety and helped them with overall recovery, leading animal-assisted therapy to become a treatment for anxiety. Animals can distract from treatments the patient is undergoing or comfort a patient living in a hospital that may not feel like home (Snelling, 2013). Keep in mind: this is just a sample. Get a custom paper now from our expert writers.Get a custom essayFlorence inspires me to be a more empathetic person, to think of the best interests of my future patients, and to implement her ideas about animals into my therapy practice . Like Florence, I hope to stand up for what I believe in and always follow my dreams or callings. In my future career, if I can change even a fraction of the life she lived, I.),)