Florence Nightingale Foundation
Charity providing scholarships to nurses, midwives, and health professionals.
The Florence Nightingale Foundation is a UK charity that awards scholarships to nurses, midwives, and other health professionals. It is named after and inspired by the work of Florence Nightingale.
Quick Facts
- Abbreviation
- FNF
- Formation
- 1934
- Location
- Deans Mews, 11-13 Cavendish Square, London W1G 0AN
- Region served
- United Kingdom
- Leader
- Mary Watkins, Baroness Watkins of Tavistock
Facts from the source article.
History
The idea for a memorial to Florence Nightingale was first raised in 1912 by Ethel Bedford-Fenwick during an International Council of Nurses Congress in Cologne. The plan moved forward at the ICN Grand Council in Montreal, but World War I pushed its activation to 1929. In 1931, the Florence Nightingale Memorial Committee decided the foundation should support post-graduate education for nurses. The Florence Nightingale Foundation was formally created in 1934, drawing on the committee’s principles and the Florence Nightingale International Foundation. Today, it offers scholarships to post-graduate nurses, midwives, and other UK health professionals. The University of Derby joined the foundation academy in 2022, the first higher education institution to do so.
Scholarships
The foundation offers three scholarship categories. Travel scholarships support study of practice or education in the UK or overseas. Research scholarships enable nurses and midwives to undertake courses in research methods, modules, or a dissertation or thesis. Leadership scholarships are for experienced nurses, midwives, healthcare deans, and heads of allied health professions.
Events and activities
The foundation hosts several annual events. The Nightingale2020 Conference, marking Florence Nightingale's 200th birthday, was held on 27–28 October 2020 at ExCeL London, organized with the Burdett Trust and Dods. A Commemoration Service occurs each 12 May, Florence Nightingale's birth date and International Nurses Day, where nurses carry a lamp and three Rolls of Honour from the Nurses' Chapel, honouring those who died in the First World War, Second World War, and COVID-19 pandemic. Students' Day invites students from UK universities with Schools of Nursing and Midwifery to spend a day at the foundation in London, primarily at The Governors Hall at St Thomas’ Hospital. In 2014, patron Sir Robert Francis described scholars as 'future leaders of the profession'. The Alumni Community was launched in 2019.
More in Nursing Organisations in the United Kingdom
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