1633 - The founding of the Sisters (or Daughters) of Charity, Servants of the Sick Poor by Sts. Vincent de Paul and Louise de Merillac. The community would not remain in a convent, but would nurse the poor in their homes, "having no monastery but the homes of the sick, their cell a hired room, their chapel the parish church, their enclosure the streets of the city or wards of the hospital." [1]
1640 - The Sisters assume charge of a hospital at Angers, Frances., philippines
1654 and 1656 - Sisters of Charity care for the wounded on the battlefields at Sedan and Arras in France. [2]
1660 - Over 40 houses of the Sisters of Charity exist in France and several in other countries; the sick poor are helped in their own dwellings in 26 parishes in Paris.
18th century
1755 - Rabia Choraya, head nurse or matron in the Moroccan Army. She traveled with Braddock’s army during the French & Indian War. She was the highest-paid and most respected woman in the army.
1783 - James Derham, a slave from New Orleans, buys his freedom with money earned working as a nurse. [3]
1850 - Florence Nightingale, a pioneer of modern nursing, begins her training as a nurse at the Institute of St. Vincent de Paul at Alexandria, Egypt [5]
1853 - Florence Nightingale visits the Daughters of Charity in their Motherhouse in Paris to learn their methods. [6]
1854 - Florence Nightingale and 38 volunteer nurses are sent to Turkey on October 21 to assist with caring for the injured of the Crimean War.
1855 - Mary Seacole leaves London on January 27 to establish a "British Hotel" at Balaklava in the Crimea.
1856 - Biddy Mason is granted her freedom and moves to Los Angeles. She works as a nurse and midwife and becomes a successful businesswoman.
1861 - Sally Louisa Tompkins opens a hospital for Confederate soldiers in July. She is later made an officer in the army, the only woman to receive that honor.
1873 - Linda Richards is graduated from the New England Hospital for Women and Children Training School for Nurses and officially becomes America's First Trained Nurse.
1876 - The Japanese term 看護婦 ("Kangofu" or nurse) is used for the first time. [8]
1879 - Mary Eliza Mahoney is graduated from the New England Hospital for Women and Children Training School for Nurses and becomes the first black professional nurse in the U.S. [9]
1884 - Mary Agnes Snively, the first Ontario nurse trained according to the principles of Florence Nightingale, assumes the position of Lady Superintendent of the Toronto General Hospital’s School of Nursing.
1885 - The first nurse training institute is established in Japan, thanks to the pioneering work of Linda Richards. [10]
1886 - The Nightingale, the first American nursing journal, is published. [11]
1886 - Spelman Seminary establishes the first nursing program in the U.S. specifically for African-Americans. [12]
1893 - The Nightingale Pledge, composed by Lystra Gretter, is first used by the graduating class at the old Harper Hospital in Detroit, Michigan in the spring.
1897 - The American Nurses Association holds its first meeting in February, as the "Nurses' Associated Alumnae of the United States and Canada".
1908 - Representatives of 16 organized nursing bodies meet in Ottawa to form the Canadian National Association of Trained Nurses, which will become the Canadian Nurses Association in 1911. [19]
1918 - Lenah Higbee is awarded the Navy Cross for distinguished service in the line of her profession and unusual and conspicuous devotion to duty as superintendent of the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps. She is the first living woman to receive this honor.
1919 - The UK passes the Nursing Act of 1919, which provides for registration of nurses, but it will not become effective until 1923. The first name entered in the register as SRN 001 was Ethel Fenwick.[citation needed]
1920s
1921 - Sophie Mannerheim, a pioneer of modern nursing in Finland, accepts the chairmanship of the Finnish Red Cross.
1923 - The Nursing Act of 1919 becomes effective and Ethel Bedford-Fenwick is the first nurse registered in the UK.
1923 - Yale School of Nursing becomes the first autonomous school of nursing in the U.S. with its own dean, faculty, budget, and degree meeting the standards of the University. The curriculum was based on an educational plan rather than on hospital service needs. [22]
1942 - Banka Island massacre: Twenty one Australian nurses, survivors of a bombed and sunken ship, are executed by bayonet or machine gun by Imperial Japanese Army soldiers on February 16.
1951 - [National Association for Practical Nurse Education and Service]NAPNES along with professional nursing organizations and the U.S. Department of Education created Vocational Nursing standards for education and the LPN / LVN level of nursing was created in the United States.
1957 - A Japanese court rules on the regulation regarding night shifts of nurses, limiting them to 8 days a month and banning single-person night shifts altogether. [31]