Ministering Angels

Complete survey of the history of the first profession that not only opened its doors to women, but was also largely created by them. Starting as far back as medieval times, with the role of nuns as nurses in feudal communities, the book contains fascinating stories of courage and single-minded determination, epitomized in very different ways by such figures as Florence Nightingale and Edith Cavell.It charts the fight the first women nurses waged against bigotry and prejudice, and how they overcame the popular notion of a nurse as a gin-soaked Mrs. Gamp, both in fact and in the fictional portrait by Charles Dickens.