Florence Nightingale, in addition to her role in initiating nursing education programs, was also involved in developing nursing for the sick poor at home and in workhouses through her work for poor law and workhouse reform of the 1860s. Her writings on public health nursing--11 items that were written during a space of more than 30 years--emphasize the need for special training for public health nurses, the importance of sanitation and disease prevention through the nurse's teaching of the sick poor, and the demoralizing nature of poverty and pauperization.