Betsi cadwalader and florence

Answer 1

Both women were nurses in the Crimean war, though that's about all they had in common. Florence was born into a wealthy upper class family whereas Betsi was born a working class welsh girl one of 16 (yes really) whose mother died when she was about 5. Unlike Nightingale Betsi was not trained as a nurse (Nightingale trained as a nurse for three months in Germany) but she had travelled allot and so had been involved in caring for the sick and in delivering children.



Betsi was not one of the initial 38 nurses that Nightingale took to Scutari, she came with a later party of nurses. It is known from her autobiography that she didn't get on with Nightingale "I did not like the name Nightingale. When I first hear a name I am very apt to know my feelings whether I shall like the person who bears it"


Once in Scutari Betsi made it known to Nightingale that she was determined to head for Balaclava. Nightingale washed her hands of Betsi, leaving her to make her way to Balaclava.


Nightingale worked hard but her main role in Scutari was organising, cleaning and dealing with minor injury's believed that nurses main work was sanitation)


In Balaclava Betsi cooked cleaned and nursed, regularly working 20 hours a day and often for several days without a break. She worked in the Crimea until it damaged her health. She returned home suffering from Cholera and Dysentery in 1855.

When Nightingale returned to Britain she set up a nursing school at St Thomas' hospital