Nursing pin

Some significant historical contributors to the foundation of hospital standards involved in using the Maltese cross were the Knights Hospitaller and Order of Saint Lazarus, pioneers of communicable disease care, such as leprosy, syphilis, and other chronic skin diseases during their period, and established one of a few hospitals in the territories of their reign.

[citation needed] Pins vary widely in shape and imagery, generally about the proportions of a woman's brooch (less than 10 cm diameter).

There are a selection of lamps in the Florence Nightingale museum, thought to have been used in the Scutari hospital in the area known geographically as the Balkans during the war with Russia.

American Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote a poem "Saint Philomena" dedicated to the work of Florence in 1857.

Volunteers usually had to supply their own uniforms, equipment and generally had to undertake charitable works in order to raise funds for their own passage to the area of identified need.