Place and Practice in Canadian Nursing History

The close association between nurses and hospitals obscures the diversity and complexity of nursing work in other contexts. This collection looks at nurses and nursing in a wide range of settings from the mid-1800s to the 1970s, including indigenous women on the Canadian prairies; First World War nurses posted overseas; outpost nurses in rural and remote areas of Saskatchewan, Ontario, and Quebec; public health nurses in Winnipeg; and religious congregations in nursing education in New Brunswick.

The contributors use feminist and historical perspectives to illustrate how place, understood as both social context and geographic setting, shaped nursing identities and practices. Many nurses found place both liberating and constraining - often simultaneously. Paying attention to place also situates these nurses and their work within larger historical themes of nation-building, war, and political change.