Mercy Street slanders real life heroines with its Anne Hastings
As best I can tell, Hastings is very loosely based on the real life Anne Reading. It's a real shame because there's no evidence to suggest she was anything but a very decent woman and dedicated nurse.
Be that is may, I resent the depiction. Florence Nightingale was the Mother Teresa of her day. Scutari was so awful, a Union Civil War hospital including the one at Mercy Street is Disneyland in comparison. That's no exaggeration. So the likelihood of one her close assistants being anything like this Hastings person is too improbable. Beyond silly. It's offensive.