Timeline of nursing history in Australia and New Zealand

• 1811 – The opening of Sydney Hospital. Convict men and women undertook the nursing.[1][2]

Sydney hospital attended the site of the first public hospital in Australia, the Rum Hospital, which was fist opened and completed in July 1820s

• 1838 – The first trained nurses arrived in Sydney, they were five Irish Sisters of Charity[1]

• 1840 – Settlement of New Zealand as a colony and the establishment of state hospitals.[1]
• 1841 – People considered to be mentally ill were considered criminals. The first case of insanity in New Zealand's society was recorded in 1841 (Papps, E, 2002).
• 1847 – Wellington Hospital was established, The first New Zealand Hospital. Giselle's Journal, http://mylittleculturediary.blogspot.co.nz/2012/02/first-new-zealand-hospital-labyrinth.html (Barber, L., & Towers, R. (1976). Wellington Hospital 1847-1976. Wellington: Wellington Hospital Board.)
• 1848 – The Yarra Bend Asylum was opened so that those mentally ill could be moved out of gaol. This Asylum was later known as Melbourne.[3]

• 1854 – The first lunatic asylum built. Opened in Wellington, New Zealand.[1]
• 1854 – Florence Nightingale and 38 volunteer nurses are sent to Turkey on 21 October to assist with caring for the injured of the Crimean War.
• 1857 – Ellen Ranyard creates the first group of paid social workers in England and pioneers the first district nursing programme in London.[4]

• 1860 – In May 1860 advertisements appeared seeking young lady nurses for training, but responses were not overwhelming; however, in July 1860 15 hand-picked probationers entered the Nightingale Training School and the pattern for modern nursing came into being.[5]
• 1860 – Florence Nightingale publishes "Note on Nursing: What it is and what it is not"
• 1860 the Nightingale training school for nurses in England at the St Thomas' hospital, London was established at this time.
• 1860-1883 - Approximately 16,378 single women emigrated to New Zealand; 582 identified their occupation as a nurse, monthly nurse, sick nurse, trained nurse, nurse girl, midwife, hospital nurse or professional nurse. Orchard, S. (1997). More ‘ woman of good character’: Nurses who came to New Zealand as immigrant settlers.[6]
• 1863 – The International Red Cross was established in Geneva, Switzerland, by five private individuals
• 1868 – Lucy Osburn and her four Nightingale nurses arrived at Sydney Infirmary (to become Sydney Hospital). They soon start the first nursing school.[1]

• 1870 – New Zealand had 37 hospitals as a result of the population increase of the gold rush. (Potter and Perry's fundamentals of nursing.[7]

• 1885 – following the Hospital and Charitable Aids Act conditions improved .(MacDonald,1990)

• 1890 – Kate Marsden, founder of the St. Francis Leprosy Guild, travels to Yakutia, Siberia in search of a herb reputed to cure leprosy.[8]
• 1899 – Japan establishes a licensing system for modern nursing professionals with the introduction of the "Midwives Ordinance".[9]
• 1899 – The International Council of Nurses is formed.
• 1899 – Australasian Trained Nurses Association was founded in New South Wales[1]
• 1899-1902 – The years of the Boer War. During the 1899-1902 South African (Boer) War, nurses from each state in Australia joined volunteer troops, serving as private citizens or with the British nursing forces. Daly, J. Jackson, D. Speedy, S. (2010). Contexts of nursing (3rd ed.). Chatswood, NSW 2067. Australia. Cecotti,L. Prejudice times meant that although hundreds of female nurses applied there was conflict with those already in the military. Few however did serve in South Africa.[1]

Nurse in the interior of Coast Hospital horsedrawn ambulance

• 1900 – Dame Agnes Gwendoline Hunt, the founder of orthopaedic nursing, opens a convalescent home for crippled children at Florence House in Baschurch which espouses the yet-unproven theory of open-air treatment.
• 1901 – New Zealand is the first country to regulate nurses nationally, with adoption of the Nurses Registration Act
• 1901 – Royal Victorian Trained Nurses' Association is formed[10]
• 1902 – Ellen Dougherty of New Zealand becomes the first registered nurse in the world on 10 February.
• 1902 – The Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service replaces, by royal warrant, the Army Nursing Service.[11]
• 1908 – The United States Navy Nurse Corps is established.
• 1908 – A-kenehi Hei (Whakato-hea and Wha-nau-a--Apanui) was the first Maori registered nurse in New Zealand.[12]
• 1908 – Kai Tiaki, the first New Zealand nursing journal is published.[13]
• 1909 – A new role called 'backblocks' nursing was introduced to New Zealand providing services to rural parts of the country[14]

Edith Cavell

• 1910 – Akenehi Hei, the first qualified Maori Nurse in New Zealand dies on 28 November 1910 after contracting typhoid from family members.[15]
• 1915 – British nurse Edith Cavell is executed in Belgium by a German firing squad on 12 October for helping hundreds of Allied soldiers escape to the Netherlands.
• 1915 – The New Zealand Army Nursing Service set up in 1915, largely at the urging of Hester Maclean (1863–1932).
• 1916 – The Royal College of Nursing is founded.
• 1917 – Sandra Lewensen examined the position of nursing history within the standardized curriculum established by the National League for Nursing Education in 1917, as well as teaching strategies used over the 20th century, pointing out that history was always part of the curriculum but declined in emphasis and time dedicated to it[16]

• 1923 – The Nursing Act of 1919 becomes effective and Ethel Gordon Fenwick is the first nurse registered in the UK.
• 1925 - New Zealand attempted to have a nursing programme available at the University of Otago[17]

• 1937 – Sister Elizabeth Kenny in the U.S. publishes her first book, Infantile Paralysis and Cerebral Diplegia: Method of Restoration of Function.
• 1938 – The New Zealand Social Security Act of 1938 marked the introduction of a comprehensive health system that mandated the provision of free care for all.[1]
• 1939 – Registering of nursing aides commenced in New Zealand[18]
• 1939-1945 – Australian and New Zealand nurses served outside their countries in World War II.[1]

• 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 16 February.
• 1948 – In Britain the National Health Service is launched on 5 July.
• 1949 – Formation of NSW College of Nursing.[1]
• 1949 - Formation of College of Nursing, Australia[19]

• 1951 – Males join the United Kingdom same register of nurses as females for the first time.[20]

• 1960 – The University of Edinburgh initiates the first degree in nursing.[21]
• 1965 – The establishment of the first nurse practitioner (NP) role, developed jointly by a nurse educator and a physician at the University of Colorado.[22]
• 1965 – 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.[9]
• 1966 – The Filipino Nurses Association was renamed as The Philippine Nurses Association.[23]
• 1967 – The Salmon Report in Britain recommends the reorganisation of the NHS management, ultimately leading to the abolishment of matrons.[24]
• 1967 – Dame Cicely Saunders sets up the first hospice in a suburb of London.[25]
• 1967 – New Zealand nursing undergo changes from being hospital-based apprenticeships to tertiary education institutions.[26]

• 1971 – The Carpenter report was released, this was a review released by New Zealand centered around the nursing education system, the report advocated training nurses in an educational environment. The government however decided that polytechs not universities were more appropriate for this, however the consequences of this were that nurses were only diploma level not degree level.[1]
• 1973 – Christchurch and Wellington Polytechnics offer diploma-level nursing education; Massey and Victoria Universities (Wellington) start their post-registration bachelor's degrees.[1]
• 1975 – First nursing diploma program in Australia in a College of Advanced Education (CAE) in Melbourne, followed quickly by programs in New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia.[27]

• 1980 – The Roper, Logan and Tierney model of nursing, based upon the activities of daily living, is published.
• 1983 – The importance of human rights in nursing is made explicit in a statement adopted by the International Council of Nurses.
• 1983 – UKCC becomes the profession's new regulatory body in the UK.
• 1988 – Anne Casey develops her child-centered nursing model while working as a paediatric oncology nurse in London.
• 1989 – Nurses' Health Study 2 begins.[28]

• 1990 – Florence Nightingale's birthday (12 May) is declared the official Nursing Day in Japan.[9]
• 1990 – Last student graduated from New Zealand hospital program.[29]
• 1992 – Eddie Bernice Johnson is the first nurse elected to the U.S. Congress.
• 1992 – "Cultural safety" was made a requirement for nursing and midwifery education programs by the Nursing Council of New Zealand. Cultural safety allows effective nursing of patients and/or family members of those of another culture by a nurse who has reflected on one's own cultural identity and understands the impact of differing cultures in nursing practice and patient care. (Papps & Ramsden, 1996)
• 1992 – The Australian and New Zealand national governments signed a Mutual Recognition Agreement. (Daly, Speedy & Jackson, 2010)[30]
• 1996 – The Flight Nurse Association was created by the New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) to recognise the need of training and education of the same standards throughout New Zealand.[31]

• 2000 – Review of undergraduate nursing education by New Zealand Nursing Council[1]
• 2002 – Deborah Harris, New Zealand's first Nurse Practitioner.[32]
• 2002 – The Nursing and Midwifery Council takes over from the UKCC as the UK's regulatory body.
• 2004 – The Health Practitioners Competence Assurance (2003) Act comes into full power on 18 September, in New Zealand, these cover the requirements for nurses to have current competences relating to their scope of practice.[33]
• 2005 – The Nursing Council of New Zealand published a comprehensive guideline on cultural safety in nursing education and practice.[1]
• 2007 – ICN Conference is held in Yokohama, Japan.
• 2009 – Carnegie Foundation releases the results of its study of nursing education, "Educating Nurses: A Call for Radical Transformation".[34]
• 2010 – Institute for the Future of Nursing (IFN) releases evidence-based recommendations to lead change for improved health care.[35]
• 2010 – A national registration for all nurses and midwives came into force in Australia in July 2010. (Daly, Speedy & Jackson, 2010)[30]
• 2010 – Nurses' Health Study 3 begins enrolling: Female RNs, LPNs, and nursing students 20-46 are encouraged to join this long-term women's health study. Study remains open until 100,000 nurses are enrolled.[28]