While Ena and her daughter developed the Red Cross of Spain in the early 1900’s, it was Florence Nightengale who introduced the concept of “medical tourism”; meaning traveling to remote situations to care for a given situation.
Florence, born and raised in Italy, took part in the Crimean War of 1855, when she established the Nightengale Fund for the training of nurses, under the sponsorship of generous nobles such as Sidney Herbert and the Duke of Cambridge.
Nightengale’s concept of modern nursing as a professin included making detailed observations of health conditions, physical descriptions, dietary information, and other vital details of patients to assist medical professionals. The result was significantly lower cost health care with the ability to provide even in remote or destitute areas which expanded into the later Red Cross concept.
(Photos: Florence Nightengale’s uniform was designed by the AMERICAN high fashion designer in 1896 Redfern. Redfern is credited with introducing the “two piece working suit” to women’s fashion, as he began designing yachting costumes, which evolved into high quality tailored ensembles)
