Early tuberculosis nursing in British Columbia

Tuberculosis was Canada's leading cause of death at the turn of the century, with a mortality rate in 1900 of about 200 per 100,000 population. By 1944 mortality was reduced to about 20 per 100,000. It is postulated that between 1895 and 1945 nurses filled a new, unique, and essential role in bringing the disease under control. This article reports on the first phase of a study to examine the role of nurses in controlling TB in British Columbia between 1895 and 1945. This preliminary study covers the period 1895 to 1920, when B.C.'s first university courses for public health nurses had not yet been established but during which nurses began to play a significant public health role by nursing TB patients. Drawing on primary and secondary sources, the authors establish baseline data, examine early TB nursing care in B.C., identify critical events, and determine whether the research should proceed.