Her parent. Her parents, William and Fanny Nightingale, discouraged Florence from a career in nursing; they wanted her to be a mother and homemaker because nursing was against the expected role for a woman of her status. In her twenties, Florence took an interest in how the sick people were taken care of; she was submissive to her parent's opposition initially to working as a nurse, only announcing later on despite the intense anger and distress of her mother and sister her decision to enter the field in 1844.