International Nurses Day 2021: Famous nurses around the world you ought to know

International Nurses Day is an international day observed around the world on 12 May annually to commemorate the contributions that nurses make to society. This particular date is chosen because it is the anniversary of Florence Nightingale's birth. The theme of this year's International Nurses Day is Nurses: A Voice to Lead- A Vision for future healthcare.

Here are some of the most popular nurses around the world:

• Florence Nightingale: Florence Nightingale was an English social reformer, statistician and the Founder of Modern Nursing. Nightingale became fairly known while serving as a manager and trainer of nurses during the Crimean War, while there she organised care for wounded soldiers at Constantinople. She was the one who gave nursing a favourable reputation.

• Martha Ballard: Martha Ballard was an American midwife and healer. Ballard kept a diary with thousands of entries over nearly three decades which has provided historians with greatly useful insight into frontier-women's lives. She was made famous by the publication of A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard which is based on her diary but written by a historian, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich.

• Dorothea Dix: Dorothea Dix was an American advocate on behalf of the mentally ill. She was the one who created the first generation of American mental asylums. She served as a Superintendent of Army Nurses During the Civil War.

• Mary Seacole: Mary Seacole was a British-Jamaican nurse, healer and businesswoman who set up the "British Hotel" behind the lines during the Crimean War. She displayed compassion, skills and bravery while nursing soldiers during the Crimean War. In 2004, she was voted the greatest black Briton.

• Dame Claire Bertschinger: Dame Claire Bertschinger is an Anglo-Swiss nurse and advocate on behalf of suffering people in the developing world. She received the Florence Nightingale Medal in 1991 for her work in nursing and was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II in 2010 for services to Nursing and to International Humanitarian Aid.

• Sharon Ann Lane: First Lieutenant Sharon Ann Lane was a United States Army Nurse and the only American servicewoman killed as a result of enemy fire during the Vietnam War.