I was reading up on Florence Nightingale and the history of nursing. It seems to me that Mary Seacole is a better role model for modern nursing.
She pushed the limits of her time without the wealth and the publicity of being friends with the editor of the London Times - like Florence.
She was not only involved with the Crimean War - she was on the front lines and not in some hospital far from the front.
She pushed the limits of nursing and scoffed at the limitations that Florence thought was 'prudent' for women of her day.
Florence Nightingale was a perfect role model for the diploma nursing programs that developed in hospitals ran by doctors in the early 20th Century: she advocated that women generally, and nurses specifically, should know their place. I just don't think that image should be paraded for modern nursing that intends to surpass such limitations.
Mary Seacole, on the other hand, created her place from wholecloth. She pushed the boundaries of what a nurse could be and envisioned nursing in a way that is more in tune with our modern goals.
In the debate about vocation vs professionalism, Nightingale was a vocationalist. Seacole: a true visionary for a profession all our own.
