2.5/5 stars. This review is in exchange for an eARC kindly gifted to me from NetGalley.

Rebecca Strong is fascinating woman whose vocational work in nursing and long life spent educating the next generations of nurses cannot be overstated. I enjoyed learning about the history of modern day nursing in Scotland and the rest of Britain. However, the editing in this book was so terrible that it often was nearly unreadable. I was going to refrain from mentioning editing as it is an ARC, but then I noted that the publication date is today, 9/30/24. I received the ARC on 9/20/24 and thus should have received what is essentially a final copy of the book. The text often had errors of spelling, grammar and sentence structure. The content was truly interesting, but I would not recommend this book simply because it was so incredibly difficult to read. Had I not wanted to give a fair review of the book, I would have DNF'd it.

TL;DR
Would only recommend this book if you are specifically looking to learn about Rebecca Strong, otherwise, it is not worth the difficulty to read it due to being poorly edited.

I had never heard of Rebecca Strong until this biography. Reading it was inspiring and left me feeling empowered and amazed. What an amazing influence on the nursing profession! How she got overshadowed by Florence Nightingale, I'm not sure. This woman ranks right up there with impressive nursing innovation especially in the realm of education and registration for nurses. I am in awe!

Rebecca Strong lived to be 100. She nursed with Florence Nightingale and was the first nurse to take a temperature and get reprimanded by a doctor for doing so. However, she pioneered the training of nurses in hospitals, which helped standardize and improve training. This is a very interesting biography of a nurse who is not as well known as others but made a significant contribution to professional standards. It's well-written and an enjoyable read.