Which nurse started the professional nursing status during the Crimean War and helped reduce mortality from 60% to 2%?

• A. Mary Seacole
• B. Florence Nightingale
• C. Clara Barton
• D. Dorothea Dix

Answer: (B)

This question tests understanding of who helped establish professional nursing during the Crimean War and drove a dramatic improvement in patient survival through sanitation and organization. Florence Nightingale arrived at the military hospital in Scutari and implemented systematic reforms: clean wards, better ventilation, reliable water and waste management, proper nutrition, hand hygiene, and organized, skilled nursing care. She also emphasized careful record-keeping and statistics to guide practice, which helped legitimize nursing as a profession and laid the foundation for modern nursing education. These changes dramatically reduced deaths from infection and neglect, lowering mortality from about 60% to around 2%. While Mary Seacole contributed greatly to care in the war, the description of starting professional nursing status and achieving that large mortality reduction aligns with Nightingale.