News archive 2010

Nightingale app previewed

07 Oct 2010, PR 211/10

A new iPhone app, ‘Navigating Nightingale’, is to be previewed at a Story of London festival event at the Maughan Library at King’s College London’s Strand campus on Thursday 7 October. The free app will guide users along the banks of the River Thames to learn more about the life of Florence Nightingale a century after her death.

Along the route, important features and buildings are highlighted that retell the story of her pioneering work in sanitation, nursing and hospital reform. The app has been created by King’s College London, AIM25 (Archives in London and the M25 area), Centre Screen Productions and 4Door Lemon and features a small selection of the many remarkable images and stories drawn from the London archives that participate in the AIM25 project.

Dr Rosemary Wall, Research Fellow in History, Florence Nightingale School of Nursing & Midwifery at King’s and Dr Geoff Browell, Senior Archivist at King’s, and Centre Screen Productions will present the soon to be released Navigating Nightingale app as part of the event, 'Florence Nightingale’s London Life: Innovation and Celebrity'. The event is part of the Story of London festival, a city-wide festival, which runs from 1-10 October, organised by the Mayor and celebrates the capital both as a place of heritage and culture, and as a cutting-edge city of change and new ideas.

The app tour begins at Somerset House, adjacent to King’s Strand Campus, and takes in the South Bank, Westminster Bridge and the Victoria Embankment, providing revealing insights into the life of Nightingale including her role in the Crimean War, in the rebuilding of St Thomas’ Hospital and the public perception of Nightingale and her work. The app uses advanced ‘complementary reality’ and ‘historical x-ray’ features, animation and exploration of images to re-imagine the London of Nightingale’s time overlaid onto a modern Thames riverbank.

Dr Geoff Browell, Senior Archivist at King’s, says: ‘Navigating Nightingale draws on the rich archive holdings of AIM25 partners, providing access to rarely-seen historical photographs, illustrations and stories to provide a window on a lost London. Highlights include George Bernard Shaw’s own photography of the riverbank, snapshots of daily life in a nineteenth century hospital and the glimpses of the industrial heritage of the South Bank.’ 

Dr Rosemary Wall will also explore Nightingale’s life in London, where she campaigned for changes in health, the army and India, following her Crimean war work. Professor Anne Marie Rafferty, the Head of the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing & Midwifery at King’s, will then guide visitors through the exhibition, ‘The Thinking Nurse’, which is also taking place in the Weston Room and includes first editions of Nightingale’s works and explores students' lives through photographs, examination papers, lecture notes and ward diaries.

The app will be available to download at the end of October.

Notes to editors

Florence Nightingale School of Nursing & Midwifery – celebrating 150 years
The Florence Nightingale School of Nursing & Midwifery at King’s College London is the world’s first professional School of nursing established by Florence Nightingale in 1860 and this year celebrates its 150th anniversary. Visit our commemorative anniversary website: www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/nursing/anniversary/

The number one Nursing and Midwifery School in London and highly regarded by leading London NHS Trusts with links to industry, health services and policy makers, the School develops leading-edge nurses and midwives of tomorrow – practitioners, partners, and leaders in their field.
 
The School has over 1,000 full-time students training to be nurses and midwives plus an extensive portfolio of undergraduate and postgraduate activities to meet the needs of a wide range of healthcare professionals seeking continuing professional development.  The School is at the forefront of health services, policy and evaluation research and home to the influential National Nursing Research Unit (NNRU) – the only Department of Health-funded unit of its kind in England. For further information visit www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/nursing/

King's College London
King's College London is one of the top 25 universities in the world (2010 QS international world rankings), The Sunday Times 'University of the Year 2010/11' and the fourth oldest in England. A research-led university based in the heart of London, King's has nearly 23,000 students (of whom more than 8,600 are graduate students) from nearly 140 countries, and some 5,500 employees. King's is in the second phase of a £1 billion redevelopment programme which is transforming its estate.

King's has an outstanding reputation for providing world-class teaching and cutting-edge research. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise for British universities, 23 departments were ranked in the top quartile of British universities; over half of our academic staff work in departments that are in the top 10 per cent in the UK in their field and can thus be classed as world leading. The College is in the top seven UK universities for research earnings and has an overall annual income of nearly £450 million.

King's has a particularly distinguished reputation in the humanities, law, the sciences (including a wide range of health areas such as psychiatry, medicine, nursing and dentistry) and social sciences including international affairs. It has played a major role in many of the advances that have shaped modern life, such as the discovery of the structure of DNA and research that led to the development of radio, television, mobile phones and radar. It is the largest centre for the education of healthcare professionals in Europe; no university has more Medical Research Council Centres.

King's College London and Guy's and St Thomas', King's College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts are part of King's Health Partners. King's Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC) is a pioneering global collaboration between one of the world's leading research-led universities and three of London's most successful NHS Foundation Trusts, including leading teaching hospitals and comprehensive mental health services. For more information, visit: www.kingshealthpartners.org.



Further information
Frances Dodd
Communications Officer
Florence Nightingale School of Nursing & Midwifery, King’s College London
T: 020 7848 3062
E: frances.dodd@kcl.ac.uk

Next:
King’s business plan competition launched
Honorary Fellow wins Nobel Literature Prize
King's contributes to WHO Intervention Guidelines

Previous:
Free radicals shown to protect the heart
New Marshall Scholarship
Cheltenham Literature Festival preview
Annual Fund launches King’s radio
Opening of Year Service


This information is provided by the Public Relations Department
Tel: 020-7848 3202  Fax: 020-7848 3739  Email: pr@kcl.ac.uk