Florence Nightingale labored as a nurse during the Crimean War from 1854 to 1856. She was an often difficult and always demanding woman. She was opinionated and fought to win the battles set before her. She was an unhappy child, who questioned everything about herself and her environment. After many miserable years as a yound adult, she convinced her parents to let her become a nurse. She worked with intense energy to improve the hospital conditions in the Crimean Peninsula. She successfully supervised her nurses as they gave the patients basic care.