She spent the rest of her life, after returning home from the war, campaiging for reforms to army medical services and nursing.
She became an advocate for improvements in hospital design (Florence Nightingale designs).
She came from a wealthy family, and had more financial support.
She was not based at the battlefront, she was miles away at Scutari.
She cleaned the wards and strove to provide clean,washed bedlinen.
She was reported in newspapers in Britain.
She complained her work was being undermined and that she didnt get the attention/appreciation she deserved.
Divided opinion; had critics and supporter.
She had access to influential people.
After Nightingale, nursing became a vocation and a profession.
Mary Seacole:
She was pracitcally forgotten about after the war.
She did not have access to real medical treatment, she used herbal rememedies.
Took no part in the post-Crimea discussions & reforms.
She went to the Crimea by herself and payed her own way (ticket) - didnt have much financial support and wasnt from a particularly wealthy family.
Kept the soldiers well behaved by emposing a curfew at her hotel and a no gambling rule, but also offered them food, clothes, shelter and luxurires, usually at a small price.
She went on to the battlefields instead of just remaining far away from the 'action'.
Her role is nursing has been extensively revisited and researched, and in 2004, she came top in a poll of greatest black Britons.
Plans for a staute of her at St Thomas' Hospital in London caused some discussion, with some historians suggesting that her role is nursing has been overexaggerated.
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