McGill’s Flora Madeleine Shaw was a founding member and the association’s first treasurer.
In the early part of the 20th century, Mary Agnes Snively, then head of Toronto General Hospital Training School for Nurses, led the charge to create a national nurses association in Canada. After almost two decades as a public school teacher, Snively enrolled in New York’s Bellevue Hospital Training School for Nurses, and upon graduation accepted a position at Toronto General.
Snively had many nursing colleagues in both Europe and the United States and when the International Council of Nurses (ICN) was formed in 1899, she was named the council’s first treasurer, then eventually served as vice-president. Her involvement in the ICN, whose members strongly believed that nursing transcended national borders, motivated her to set in motion a plan to develop a national association in Canada.
At the time, there were a number of nursing organizations throughout the country with plans to formalize their memberships, and address educational standards and professional roles in nursing.
Snively’s initial efforts brought together superintendents of nursing schools from across Canada to form the Canadian Society of Superintendents of Training Schools for Nurses (CSSTN), effectively the first national nurses’ organization, but before long, she saw the merits of expanding its mandate. In 1908, she invited graduate nurses’ associations to send delegates to the CSSTN meeting in Ottawa.
Those who attended adopted a constitution for the Canadian National Association of Trained Nurses (CNATN), and 19 nurses’ associations became charter members. Snively served as the first president, and Flora Madeleine Shaw, who would eventually become the first director of the School of Graduate Nurses at McGill, was the organization’s first treasurer.
The organization was renamed the Canadian Nurses Association (CNA) in 1924, and McGill nursing faculty have played a major role in leading the CNA since its founding. The association’s presidents have included Flora Madeleine Shaw, who served from 1926 to 1927; Marion Lindeburgh (1942-44); Rae Chittick (1946-48); Joan Gilchrist (1976-78); Helen Doris Taylor (1978-1980); Lorine Besel (1984-86); and Judith Anne Ritchie (1988-90). Mary Ellen Jeans served as Chief Executive Officer (1995-2001).