Which nurse is known for reducing infection risk through cleanliness and founding modern nursing?

• A. Florence Nightingale
• B. Clara Barton
• C. Mary Nutting
• D. Lillian Wald

Answer: (A)

A nurse who focused on cleanliness to cut infection risk and who helped establish nursing as a modern profession is Florence Nightingale. She showed that the patient’s environment matters: clean wards, proper ventilation, orderly waste disposal, clean linens, and careful handling of supplies all reduce how often infections occur. Her work during the Crimean War demonstrated dramatic drops in mortality when hospital conditions were improved and basic hygiene like hand washing was emphasized. Beyond patient care, she founded the first secular nursing school and set standards for nursing education, professionalizing the role and grounding practice in organizational, evidence-based approaches to care. Other prominent nurses contributed in important ways—Clara Barton with disaster relief and the Red Cross, Mary Nutting with nursing education leadership, Lillian Wald with public health nursing—but Nightingale is the figure most associated with both lowering infection risk through cleanliness and the creation of modern nursing.