Editor’s note: the below series was published in the summer of 2010. The topics covered by Hassmiller in her travels are as relevant today as they were then.

Susan Hassmiller, PhD, RN, FAAN, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Senior Adviser for Nursing, is spending her summer vacation pursuing a dream to learn more about the life and work of the legendary Florence Nightingale. She’s traveling through Europe on a special tour developed in honor of the centennial of Nightingale’s death.
In her dispatches from the road, posted one by one and collected on this page, Hassmiller reports on her trip, what she learns, and what it means to nurses’ work today. Hassmiller’s posts are listed below in the chronological order in which they appeared on the blog, in case you’d like to start at the beginning and follow Hassmiller through her pre-trip preparations and research and on to adventures in London and Turkey.