I doubt that Alice had any nurses' training in the formal sense. It wasn't a profession at all in Britain until Florence Nightingale came back from the Crimea and organised the first training. It certainly wasn't a profession that an aristocrat or Royal would enter. Nevertheless, Alice was a serious-minded young woman. Like her sister Vicky medical matters interested her, she read widely on the subject and became a friend of Miss Nightingale's.
She certainly had practice of some sort with family members. She helped during her grandmother the Duchess of Kent's final illness in early 1861 and by the end of the year she was in charge of the sickroom as her father, the Prince Consort, lay dying. All this stood her in good stead when she organised hospitals in Darmstardt, especially during wartime, and later, when she nursed her family.
She certainly had practice of some sort with family members. She helped during her grandmother the Duchess of Kent's final illness in early 1861 and by the end of the year she was in charge of the sickroom as her father, the Prince Consort, lay dying. All this stood her in good stead when she organised hospitals in Darmstardt, especially during wartime, and later, when she nursed her family.
Alice was introduced early, visiting patients from the Crimean war with her mother. She later was care taker to her grandmother Victoria and then her dad Albert nursing them in the last months of illness. She also liked to be among common people all which she continued in her new home.
