During the 1860s, nursing was established in the United Kingdom by the renowned Florence Nightingale. This paved the way for the modernization of nursing practice and education in Ontario. In 1874, the first promising training program in Canada was instituted at the St. Catharines Marine and General Hospital. The program, called the Mack Training School for Nurses, endeavored to provide a two-year sensible nursing experience curriculum. Ten years later, the Lady Superintendent of the Toronto General Hospital's School of Nursing, Mary Agnes Snively, redeveloped a more proper format for curriculum and created the first nursing residence for students.
Hospitals began to realize the benefits of establishing hospital-centered nursing programs, as it provided free labor by skilled nurses. In 1909, nursing programs in Ontario began lengthening their programs, which increased the amount of time student nurses spent providing free care to patients. However, just a few short years later in 1914, the committee on nursing education at the University of Toronto declared that the program's enrollment levels and training efficiency were suffering as a result of the constant physical and psychological stress endured by nursing students.
Within a few years, efforts were underway to establish nursing education in a separate university venue, but these efforts were met with harsh resistance since a prejudice against women pursuing professional careers was still prevalent. It was not until 1942 that Kathleen Russell developed the first integrated nursing program that met university degree standards, after being refused degree status by the University of Toronto. And in 1959, the University of Western Ontario introduced the first master's level nursing program.
Academic and professional progress was made in 1967 with the introduction of the first nursing program for nurse practitioners in Canada. The program quickly migrated to Ontario. This new classification of nurses came about as a result of a physician shortage and provided these specialized nurses with more professional autonomy. Unfortunately, in 1983, McMaster University closed the last nurse practitioner program in response to an alleged inundation of physicians. It was not until 12 years later that the misguided perception of a physician abundance was recognized and the Primary Health Care Nurse Practitioner (PHCNP) training program was established. This postgraduate nursing program trained nurses to provide primary care alongside medical doctors, rather than beneath them. Other postgraduate programs were quickly created to allow nurses to participate to a greater capacity in patient care.
Most recently, in 2005, new minimum requirements for practice as a registered nurse emerged. The program transformed from a college diploma program to a four-year baccalaureate degree from university, thus completing the transformation in nursing from the long ago home-based caregiver to a fully competent career professional.