The exhibition's spiral layout takes visitors through nine zones, exemplifying various nurses' working environments: In the Hospital, At the Bedside, In the Home, In the Community, On the Frontier, On the Battlefield, On Campus and On the Picket Line. In addition, there is an introductory area and an interactive Nursing Station.

Introduction to Nursing in Canada
Nursing in Canada has a special. In this zone, we learn about Canada's two parallel nursing traditions – the religious Catholic model and the secular British-inspired model. In the exhibition, these two traditions are represented by Jeanne Mance, who established Montreal's first hospital, the Hôtel-Dieu, in 1642, and Florence Nightingale, whose pioneering work to improve the unsanitary, comfortless conditions in British army hospitals during the Crimean War changed the image of nursing in Canada and around the world. A lantern used in the Nightingale Crimean hospital is featured.

In the Hospital
The first hospitals in New France, as this zone reveals, were run by well-educated and well-trained nuns, contrasted with the squalor of those in British North America, which were basically hospices for the sick and dying. We see how in the later nineteenth century, modern hospitals became places of therapeutic, rather than custodial, care. A new, modern-trained nursing force was required to run the expanding hospital wards and operating rooms.

In this zone, we meet Marie-Angélique Viger (known as Soeur Saint-Martin), a tall and authoritative woman of "a lively and penetrating mind" who assumed responsibility for the pharmacy of the Hôtel-Dieu de Québec in 1789. Also an accomplished embroiderer, wood carver and artist, she established a reputation for herbal cures that attracted patients from as far away as Halifax. Several 18th-century apothecary jars from the Hôtel-Dieu and other New France hospitals are featured.

At the Beside
Nurses undergo strict and complex training to ensure patients' comfort, security, dignity and health. In the first half of the twentieth century, this training combined rigorous classroom teaching and practical experience on the wards, often 12 hours a day. We see how nurses are taught to focus on the patient first and foremost, even with the rapid evolution of medical technology. A nurse's sense of touch remains an important element in patient care. An iron lung, with 1950s videos of nurses caring for children kept alive in the respirators, demonstrates this approach.

We learn how student nurses had to stand for hours listening to resident doctors' scientific lectures, and about the "high jinks" in nurses' residences that helped the young women cope with the tension of working on the wards.

In the Home
Until the 1930s, most nursing was done, not in hospitals, but in patients' homes. In this zone, we see the rise of charitable nursing organizations, such as the Victorian Order of Nurses (VON), that helped poor patients get adequate care in their homes. This zone also highlights the nursing care that newborn and new mothers received, and the evolution of midwifery in Canada.

We meet Rosalie Cadron-Jetté (1794-1864), a widow and mother of 11 children, who was asked by the Bishop of Montréal to set up an institution caring for pregnant girls rejected by their families. She agreed, despite widespread opposition, even from members of her own family. Known as Soeur de la Nativité, she regarded the girls in her care as "treasures." Her portrait, borrowed from the Misericordia Sisters, expresses her caring nature.

In the Community
This zone focuses on the nurses who were front-line workers for departments of health, helping to control infectious diseases like cholera, diphtheria and tuberculosis. These public health nurses led the way in promoting healthy ways of life and disease prevention, often in the poorest urban areas.

We meet public health nurse and activist Cathy Crowe, who has been reaching out to the homeless in the streets of Toronto, and in tent cities and shelters, since 1988. Visitors see how Crowe's respect and empathy for her patients, combined with political savvy and determination, have helped to focus national attention on the problem of homelessness. Her street nursing backpack, full of the things she needed to treat street people, is on display.

On the Frontier
This zone highlights the stories of courageous and dedicated nurses who went to serve in remote areas of Canada, far from hospitals and other medical help. We learn how these nurses birthed babies, pulled teeth and coped with every conceivable medical problem. Frontier nurses travelled to their patients on horseback, or by sled, ski, bush plane, or dory. This zone includes a real gas-powered railway speeder, a common method of travel for outpost nurses.

We meet Kathleen Mary "Jo" Lutley, who trained in England as a nurse and midwife. After responding to a 1956 newspaper advertisement for "a pioneer nurse" for northern Labrador, she provided 26 years of health services in Canada's North, nursing patients in tipis, nursing stations, airplanes and snowhouses.

On the Battlefront
This zone focuses mainly on Canadian Nursing Sisters in the First and Second World Wars. Trained nurses readily "filled the ranks" of the Canadian armed forces nursing service, becoming the first women officers in the world. We learn of the tremendous difference their skills and presence made to the care and convalescence of thousands of sick and wounded soldiers. Nursing Sisters' work with new medicines – such as penicillin and sulpha drugs, advances in burn care, and frequent blood transfusions – helped to save many lives.

We enter into the experiences of Nursing Sisters who served under enemy fire close to the front lines, and who faced bombardments on the battlefield and the sinking of ships at sea. Artifacts include a set of surgical instruments, First World War gas mask, and a doll made by a soldier patient.

On Campus and on the Picket Line
Nurses have had to struggle to gain professional recognition through higher education and accreditation. As this zone reveals, they also turned to unions to fight for better pay and working conditions, and to ensure a high standard of patient care.