GREY NUNS
The visitation of the sick in their homes has always been one of the forms of charity in this city. As a more pronounced movement the Grey Nuns took up domiciliary visits on October 23, 1848. Among the works of the Grey Nuns for 1863 Jacques Viger, in his “Servantes de Dieu in Canada,” has the following:
| Number of the poor helped in their homes | 1,418 |
| Number of house visits | 4,943 |
| Number of night attendances among the sick | 300 |
SISTERS OF PROVIDENCE
The Sisters of Providence who were engaged in the same work according to the Annuaire de Ville Marie of Huguet-Latour, in 1863, were thus active:
| Number of poor and sick visited in 1863 | 13,243 |
| Night attendances | 622 |
| Assisted at death | 136-758 |
Thus the work was carried on by the early religious communities and their work is now supplemented by other new congregations, notably by the Sœurs del ’Esperance, on Sherbrooke Street, who make this work a specialty, and by the Tertiaries (lay) of St. François, and others. The work has also been carried on by groups of ladies connected with the Protestant churches and as well by nursing bodies organized of late years.
With regard to the modern organized nursing system, reference has been made to the training of nurses for hospital work. There are schools attached to each of the great hospitals. There are now, however, several bodies who are trained to work in the homes of the people, such as the Canadian Order of Nurses, Phillip’s School for Nurses and the Victorian Order of Nurses. The latter movement being the latest development and one that has reached Dominion prominence, deserves especial historical recognition.
THE VICTORIAN ORDER OF NURSES
The Victorian Order of Nurses was inaugurated in 1897 as the Memorial of Queen Victoria’s Jubilee in Canada. The suggestion that this should be the Canadian Memorial came from the National Council of Women of Canada, of which Her Excellency, the Countess of Aberdeen, was then the presidential head. In 1896 the urgent need of medical aid and trained nursing in the northwest territories and outlying districts of Canada had been brought home to the council through its affiliated societies in the Canadian west. A scheme was thought out and laid before the prime minister and other members of the government and at a public meeting at Ottawa in 1897 a resolution in its favour was moved by the Hon. Wilfrid Laurier, seconded by the Hon. Clifford Sifton, minister of the interior, and carried unanimously.