The Florence Nightingale Pledge

What it is

This is a black-and-white scan of an illuminated manuscript titled The Florence Nightingale Pledge. It has decorative gothic lettering, floral borders and a large illuminated initial F, with the pledge text written in calligraphy below. The pledge is held by the Wellcome Collection. It is a promise that nurses make at the end of their training, to pass their lives in purity, practise faithfully, avoid harm and keep patients' private matters in confidence.

Why it matters

The pledge was composed in 1893, about thirty years after the Crimean War, and was named in her honour. It shows how her ideals were turned into a ritual in nurse training. The text also names the physician, which reflects the medical world in which nursing was then organised. Because it was written by others, the pledge tells us how later nurses and trainers remembered her, not what she herself said.

Look closer

• Which promises in the pledge would matter most to a patient, and which would matter most to a nurse?
• Why might a decorative illuminated format have been chosen for a promise like this?
• Whose voices are missing from the pledge, and whose ideas about nursing does it reflect?