It was the height of the Crimean War, and English soldiers were wounded and dying by the hundreds. The shocking conditions of British field hospitals only worsened potential recovery. Into these rat and flea-infested facilities stepped a woman of uncompromising convictions, great patience and an iron will. When Florence Nightingale, “The Lady of the Lamp,” arrived on the scene, the science and practice of nursing soon changed all over the world, forever.