Florence Nightingale one of the most influence in nursing. Famous for being the 'Lady with the Lamp' who organised the nursing of sick and wounded soldiers during the Crimean War, Florence Nightingale's far-sighted ideas and reforms have influenced the very nature of modern healthcare.
Her greatest achievement was to transform nursing into a respectable profession for women and in 1860, she established the first professional training school for nurses, the Nightingale Training School at St Thomas' Hospital.
She campaigned tirelessly to improve health standards, publishing over 200 books, reports and pamphlets on hospital planning and organisation which are still widely read and respected today, including her most famous work "Notes on Nursing: What It Is and What It Is Not".
Florence's influence on today's nursing, ranges from her ward designs (known as Nightingale Wards) which were developed in response to her realisation that hospital buildings themselves could affect the health and recovery of patients, through to pioneering infection control measures and the championing of a healthy diet as a key factor for recovery. Florence also believed in the need for specialist midwifery nurses and established a School of Midwifery nursing at King's College Hospital which became a model for the country.
Florence is also credited with inventing the pie chart and was the first woman to be elected to the Royal Statistical Society. She was also the first woman to be awarded the Freedom of the City of London, which she received in 1909.
She inspired the founding of the International Red Cross which still awards the Florence Nightingale Medal for nurses who have given exceptional care to the sick and wounded in war or peace.

Lets More Know About Her

EARLY YEARS

Born in an era when middle-class women were expected to simply make a good marriage and raise a family, Florence sensed a 'calling' from God at an early age and believed she was destined to do something greater with her life. As a child, she was very academic and particularly interested in mathematics. Her religion gave her a strong sense of moral duty to help the poor and, over time, she held a growing belief that nursing was her God-given vocation. She was also perhaps set to follow the family tradition of reform mindedness, such as the example set by her maternal grandfather who was an anti-slavery campaigner.
Paid nursing suffered a reputation as a job for poor, often elderly women, and the popular image was one of drunkenness, bad language and a casual attitude to patients. Despite parental concern, she persisted in her ambition, reading anything she could about health and hospitals. Eventually she persuaded them to allow her to take three months nursing training at an inspirational hospital and school in Dusseldorf. Aged 33, she then became superintendent of a hospital for 'gentlewomen' in Harley Street, London.

 

THE CRIMEAN WAR

In March 1854, reports flooded in about the dreadful conditions and lack of medical supplies suffered by injured soldiers fighting the Crimean War. The Minister at War, a social acquaintance, invited Florence to oversee the introduction of female nurses into the military hospitals in Turkey. With a party of 38 nurses, Florence arrived in Scutari that November and set about organising the hospitals to improve supplies of food, blankets and beds, as well as the general conditions and cleanliness. The comforting sight of her checking all was well at night earned her the name "Lady of the Lamp", along with the undying respect of the British soldiers.

 

REFORMING SPIRIT

The introduction of female nurses to the military hospitals was deemed an outstanding success, Florence returned to Britain a heroine and donations poured in to the Nightingale Fund. The money collected enabled Florence to continue her reform of nursing in the civil hospitals of Britain after the war. Determined that the medical mistakes of the two-year long war were never repeated, she vividly communicated the needs for medical reform using statistical charts which showed that more men had died from disease than from their wounds. She then instigated a Royal Commission into the health of the army which led to a large number of improvements and saved the lives of many.
Her attention later turned to the health of the British army in India and she demonstrated that bad drainage, contaminated water, overcrowding and poor ventilation were causing the high death rate. She concluded that the health of the army and the people of India had to go hand in hand and so campaigned to improve the sanitary conditions of the country as a whole.

The Nightingale Training School was established in 1860 using donations from the Nightingale Fund. Its reputation soon spread and Nightingale nurses were requested to start new schools all over the world, including Australia, America and Africa.
Despite often being confined to her sick bed, by what we now believe was a bacterial infection known as brucellosis, Florence continued as a driving force behind the scenes, writing some 13000 letters as part of her campaigns. She met Queen Victoria on many occasions and exchanged correspondence for over thirty years. Florence was awarded the Royal Red Cross in 1883. Then in 1907 she was the first woman to receive the Order of Merit, Britain's highest civilian decoration.
Florence died aged 90, on 13 August 1910, and was buried with her family in East Wellow, Hampshire.

Taken from: http://www.florence-nightingale.co.uk/the-collection/biography.html

1. Florence Nightingale
   A made for television film, it follows Jaclyn Smith as Florence Nightingale and shows how the Lady with the Lamp became one of the most important advocates for sanitation andcleanliness. Follow Florence from her early roots to her nursing career during the Crimean War and even some battles with the medical establishment. A must see for an in depth look at what many call the founder of modern day nursing.
2. Miss Evers’ Boys
   Alfre Woodard stars in this 1997 film made for HBO. She plays small town nurse Eunice Evers, who witnesses the horrors of the Tuskegee experiment. It was nominated for and won several Emmys including Outstanding Made for Television Movie and Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie.
3. MASH
   We’ve all heard of the popular television series, but it was actually launched after this successful 1970 film. It is based on the story of three army doctors and takes place during the Korean War. A few nurses with clever nicknames also show up in this highly acclaimed film.
4. So Proudly We Hail!
   In another entry about historic nurses, this film follows a group of stationed in the Philippines during the days of World War II. It stars film classic favorites Claudette Colbert, Veronica Lake, and Paulette Goddard, who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. The film is based on a book written by an actual WWII nurse.
5. Cry Havoc
   What do a Southern Belle, waitress, and stripper have incommon? In this 1943 picture, they are all turned army nurses stationed in Bataan during World War II. Again, nurses face the plight of war from the other end of the fighting. The film is also based on a play that starred Carol Channing and is named after a Shakespeare line.
6. A Farewell to Arms
   This film is based on an Ernest Hemingway novel which was semi-autobiographical. Directed by Charles Vidor, the 1957 film stars leading man Rock Hudson as an American soldier who meets and falls in love with a British nurse in an Italian hospital during World War I. Not uncommon for Hemingway work, it ends on a sad note.
7. Wit
   This film was based on a 1999 Pulitzer Prize winning play of the same name. Emma Thompson plays a fiercely demanding professor of English literature who contracts cancer. While at a hospital, an aggressive and experimental treatment is recommended. When it comes down to the patient’s final wishes and care, it is Nurse Susie who steps into the spotlight.
8. Night Nurse
   How far has nursing come in the last 80 years? The answer to that is in this film starring Barbara Stanwyck made in 1931. In the film, she plays a nurse who seeks the help of a petty criminal to foil a sinister plot to murder two children. Also useful for showing how nurses were trained and what they did.
9. The Bag of Knees
   This documentary follows the lives of nurses in various hospital wards. The film includes their backgrounds, careers, and experiences. Even the recent changes in healthcare are discussed. Click here to see a free scene from the documentary.
10. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
    Don’t know who Nurse Ratched is? Then check out this 1975 Oscar Winner that follows a young Jack Nicholson through a stay at a mental institution. Louise Fletcher plays the offending nurse who makes his stay memorable.
11. The Nun’s Story
    Although the film focuses on the life and expectations of a nun, it is worth watching for Audrey Hepburn’s role as the lead, where she plays a nun and a nurse. The film is based on the true story of a nun at the Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary, where the main character is witness to a variety atrocities and must decide between her roles as a nun or a nurse.
12. Meet the Parents
    Sick of movies where nurses are only nurses and not people? For the double whammy of also featuring a male nurse is this film, which also spawned two sequels. Ben Stiller plays a nurse and newly-minted bane of his to be father in law’s existence. Robert De Niro plays the father-in-law and an ex CIA agent who can truly make any addition to the family miserable.
13. The Nurse
    Although nurses are known for caring for their patients above all, this 1997 film takes another turn. When the man who drove her father to go on a killing spree shows up in her hospital, this nurse gets the perfect opportunity for revenge.With an R rating, this psychological thriller is not for the easily scared.
14. Prison Nurse
    Not as bad as the title makes it sound, this is another entry in the “just watch it to see what nursing was like then” entries. Made in 1938, the story follows a nurse who signs on at a maximum security prison. When a typhoid epidemic breaks out, Judy and her friends must hold fast to save the day.
15. 13 Weeks
    More of a web series than a film, it follows the true story of six Access Nurse Travel RNs as they work in Southern California. From the ER to the ICU, many elements of nursing are shared. See all six episodes here.
And there are many other films and shows where nurses are depicted in addition to the above 15 best movies about nursing. Although nurses often get a supporting role on screen, their dedication and commitment to patients is far more common place in the everyday world.
Source: 
http://onlinebsn.org/2011/the-15-best-movies-about-nursing/