[The emergence of a professional identity among Quebec nurses, 1890-1927]

As part of an important Western trend, the professionalization of Quebec nurses was initially characterized by the enormous challenge of rallying all nurses into adhering to a single professional model. The story starts in 1895 when an elite corps of English-Protestant nurses established the Canadian Nurses Association. These graduates of the Montreal General Hospital were quite active within the English Canadian nursing movement promoting the ideal of the trained nurse, conceived by Florence Nightingale in England. They also fought for professional registration, in keeping with the American trend. The task of rallying French Catholics to the cause of registration soon proved difficult however, as disparities between schools and associations as well as between linguistic and religious groups became apparent. The 1920 Nurses Registration Bill did not put an end to the conflict, unfortunately. By an immediate and controversial alliance, French Catholic physicians and nurses attempted to contest the law which penalized them. If the alliance between them proved beneficial to French-Catholic nurses then, it cost the latter their professional autonomy.