SJRCC PRESS RELEASE June 2007 SJRCC nursing students celebrate Florence Nightingale's birthday with descendent St. Johns River Community College's nursing students received a special treat recently while attending a clinical rotation orientation. The group was invited to attend Flagler hospital's birthday celebration for Florence Nightingale, who is credited for laying the foundation for modern-day nursing in the 1800s. Florence Nightingale Fox, Nightingale's great-grandniece, attended the celebration as the guest of honor. Fox, a retired nurse, answered questions about Nightingale, displayed memorabilia, posed for photographs and signed the students' books. "Florence Nightingale has always been an inspiration to me," said nursing student Amy Brumfield. "This was such an opportunity to meet her great-grandniece; I'll never forget it." The students were attending the orientation when Flagler's chief nursing officer Barbara Drummond-Huth, a personal friend of Fox, invited them to attend the celebration. SJRCC nursing instructor Maureen McGinty, RN, MSN, IBCLC, said the students were thrilled to meet Fox. "The legacy of Florence Nightingale lives throughout the nurses of today, and it was an absolute honor for our future nurses to meet the descendent of their hero," she said. SJRCC nursing students Sarah Warren (left), Amy Brumfield (center), and April Ivey (right) chat with Florence Nightingale Fox, a descendent of nursing icon Florence Nightingale. Return to SJRCC home page.