| 1639 |
 |
The Augustine Order of Dieppe, France, establishes Canada's first hospital,
the Hôtel-Dieu de Québec.
|
| 1642 |
|
Jeanne Mance establishes Montréal's first Hospital, the Hôtel-Dieu.
|
| 1789 |
|
Marie-Angélique Viger (Soeur Saint-Martin) takes responsibility for
the pharmacy of Hôtel-Dieu de Québec. She soon establishes
an outstanding reputation for herbal cures.
|
| 1844 |
|
Four Sisters of Charity of Montréal (known as the Grey Nuns)
begin an arduous 59-day journey by canoe and portage to the mission
at St. Boniface, Manitoba to provide medical, religious and
educational services to the Métis and settlers.
|
| 1869 |
|
The Sisters of Charity of Providence reveal their pharmaceutical
secrets in Traité élémentaire de matière
médicale, the first book of its kind in Canada.
|
| 1871 |
|
The Grey Nuns found St. Boniface Hospital in Winnipeg, the first
in the region. Between 1891 and 1916, they go on to found missions
providing medical services in the areas now known as Saskatchewan,
Alberta and the Northwest Territories.
|
| 1874 |
|
The first training school for nurses in Canada opens in St. Catharines,
Ontario. Professionally trained nurses are now needed to assist
with new therapies and surgical techniques, and improved patient care.
|
| 1885 |
|
Canadian civilian nurses serve in the Northwest Rebellion, caring
for wounded soldiers in field hospitals in Saskatoon and Moose Jaw,
Saskatchewan.
|
| 1897 |
|
The Victorian Order of Nurses (VON) is established by the
National Council of Women and its president,
Lady Ishbel Gordon,
Countess of Aberdeen and wife of the Governor General.
|
| 1898 |
|
Four VON nurses travel to Fort Selkirk in the Yukon to bring medical care
to desperately ill prospectors in the Klondike.
|
| 1899-1902 |
|
Twelve Canadian nurses serve in the South African War, and are credited
as lieutenants for pay and allowances.
|
| 1900 |
|
The Victorian Order of Nurses establishes outpost nursing stations in
remote and rural areas of the country.
|
| 1904 |
|
The Canadian Army Medical Corps creates its own nursing service. Officer
status has remained an important aspect of Canadian military nursing,
with its own authority, responsibilities and privileges.
|
| 1908 |
|
The Canadian National Association of Trained Nurses is formed. It later
becomes the Canadian Nurses Association, representing over 100,000
Registered Nurses in 11 provinces and territories.
|
| 1910 |
|
By 1910, 70 nursing schools had opened in Canada from Montréal to Medicine Hat,
Alberta.
|
| 1914-1918 |
|
Canadian nurses embark on their first major military undertaking.
Some 3,140 nurses use their skills on a large scale to deal with
the devastating injuries Canadian soldiers suffer as a result of
high-powered artillery, machine guns and poison gas attacks.
|
| 1917 |
|
Hundreds of VON nurses from across Canada come to Halifax to assist
the thousands wounded by the explosion in Halifax Harbour when
a munitions ship collides with another vessel.
|
| 1918 |
|
During the great influenza pandemic, which killed 30,000 Canadians,
the VON sends out emergency calls to every one of its branches, which
respond immediately. In Toronto, 16 nurses visit 900 patients in a single day.
|
| 1919 |
|
The University of British Columbia introduces a university degree
programme in nursing, the first of its kind in the British Empire.
|
| 1920 |
|
The Canadian Red Cross establishes outpost nursing stations.
|
| 1920 |
|
The Newfoundland Outport Nursing Committee is formed. This
Committee was the brainchild of Lady Constance Harris, the
wife of Newfoundland's governor.
|
| 1922 |
|
Nurses win the legal right to use the term "Registered Nurse."
|
| 1922 |
|
The federal government sets up mobile nursing clinics to serve
Aboriginal people in remote regions of the country.
|
| 1923 |
|
Public health nurses in Vancouver receive credit for their contribution
when the city achieves the lowest mortality rate of any North American city.
|
| 1925 |
|
The University of Montreal, in conjunction with the
Marguerite d'Youville Institute (Grey Nuns), found the first
francophone nursing degree programme in the world.
|
| 1930 |
|
The federal government opens the first nursing station for
Aboriginal people, on the Fisher River Reserve in Northern Manitoba.
|
| 1930s |
|
Quebec's lay nurses become the first in the country to form unions.
|
| 1939-1945 |
|
Nearly 4,500 Canadian nurses with the Army, Navy and Air Force
serve overseas, often in field medical units just behind the front lines.
|
| 1947 |
|
The Grey Nuns write the groundbreaking Le soin des maladies
for students in their university nursing programme.
|
| 1950 |
|
Canada experiences a shortage of nurses. As a result, nursing schools
begin to recruit men and members of ethnic minorities. Hospitals begin
to recruit married nurses to return to work, and trained nurses
from the Caribbean, the Philippines and other countries.
|
| 1950-1951 |
|
Canadian Nursing Sisters serve in the Korean War. Between 1951
and 2004, Canadian Nursing Sisters also serve in Europe with
the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and in
peacekeeping operations ranging from Egypt in 1956 to Haiti in 2004.
|
| 1970s |
|
Nurses in all provinces begin to turn to collective bargaining to achieve
their aims.
|
| 1975 |
|
The Aboriginal Nurses Association of Canada is founded.
|
| 1995 |
|
A nurses' training programme is created in the Northwest Territories
to encourage northerners, many of them Aboriginal, to become nurses
in their own communities.
|
| 2004 |
|
There are 84 bachelor's degree and nine doctoral nursing programmes in
Canada.
|
