Florence and her nurses got right to work. They turned the hospital into a significantly more healthy environment by washing the linens and clothes, improving the medical and sanitary arrangements, writing home on behalf of the soldiers, and introducing reading rooms. Within six months, the death rate of the patients fell from 40 percent to a mere 2 percent.
It was here at Scutari that Florence would acquire the nickname of “the Lady with the Lamp.” According to the Times, Florence would walk among the beds at night, checking on the wounded men with a light in her hand. This image—in a similar way to the flag-raising at Iwo Jima—captivated the public, and she became a celebrity with her own “cult following.”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was one of many to admire Florence and immortalized her in his poem Santa Filomena: