Established 9 July 1860 Head of School Professor Ian Norman | Parent institution King's College London Location London, UK | |
 | ||
Former names - The Nightingale Training School and Home for Nurses
- Nightingale School of Nursing
- Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery Website www.kcl.ac.uk/nursing/Index.aspx | ||
The Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery is an academic school within King's College London. The school is the world's first nursing school to be continuously connected to a fully serving hospital and medical school (St. Thomas' Hospital). 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 School forms part of the Waterloo campus on the South Bank of the River Thames and is now one of the largest schools in the university.
The school is ranked as the number one faculty for nursing in London and in the United Kingdom whilst placing 6th in the world rankings and belongs to one of the leading universities in health services, policy and research in the world. King's College London, generally in 2005, is the sixth-most demanding UK university to gain admission to, as ranked as by Sunday Times. 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 women's 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.
Established on 9 July 1860 by Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, as the oldest nursing school in the world still in operation, it was a model for many similar training schools through the UK, Commonwealth and other countries for the latter half of the 19th century.
History
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 Nightingale's school for nurses was initially set up, 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 hospital's 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 Nightingale's 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 one's character, the 'certification' of such nurse would be opposed to.
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 & Lewisham School of Nursing, creating the Nightingale and Guy’s College of Nursing & Midwifery. The following year the name changed to the Nightingale College of Health. In 1993, it merged with King's College Hospital School of Nursing at Normanby College and formed the Nightingale Institute. In 1996, the Institute was fully integrated into King's College London and was combined with the university's Department of Nursing Studies two years later to form the Florence Nightingale Division of Nursing & 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".