Sunday, November 1st, 2015

Today started with a medical walking tour of London. Our tour guide, Mary, shared her wealth of knowledge about the history of London’s favorite medical heroines, including Florence Nightingale, Mary Seacole, and Edith Cavell. All are well loved nurses of the past. We were all intrigued by Mary Seacole’s contribution to nursing, and surprised we had never heard of her before this course! We were able to take a tour of the Florence Nightingale Museum, which features many articles owned by Florence and discovered more of her character and passion for nursing.

On our tour, we also learned of the history of sewer problems in London and the cholera outbreaks due to poor sanitation. John Snow was a British physician who is considered one of the founders of epidemiology for his work identifying the source of a cholera outbreak in 1854. We were able to see where he used to live. London is full of medical and nursing history!

In the evening, part of our group were privileged enough to experience true “London Fog” as we attempted to ride the London Eye.

Thanks for joining us on our trip to London!