Key Events in Alberta’s Nursing History
The Alberta Association of Nurses (AAN) comes from a century-long history of nursing in Alberta and the branching paths that eventually distinguished each nursing discipline.
But where did this association come from? And why? Let’s untangle the history of nursing to give an unfettered view of the present.
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Nursing in Alberta truly got its feet under it in the early 1900s. At this point, the union, regulatory body, and association duties were held under one single entity. In 1916, the Alberta Association of Registered Nurses (AARN) was created to control standards of practice in nursing as well as training programs.
In 1931, a school opened in Ponoka to train nurses to address the needs of those with a mental illness, and in 1948, 18 nurses graduated from the Provincial Mental Institution at Oliver (now known as Alberta Hospital Edmonton). Male graduates were known as certified attendants and female graduates as graduate mental nurses: the inception of registered psychiatric nurses.
1977 marked when the nurses’ union became its own entity called the United Nurses of Alberta (UNA), creating a separate organization for collective bargaining.
January 1988 saw the formal proclamation of the Psychiatric Nurse Regulation to the Health Disciplines Act, and the title was changed to Registered Psychiatric Nurses’ Association of Alberta (RPNAA). 1990 brought recognition to the work of LPNs when their title was changed from ‘registered nursing assistant.’ AARN also specified itself in this decade by renaming themselves as the College and Association of Registered Nurses of Alberta (CARNA).
2020 brought about a massive change.
On August 19, 2020, CARNA voted to separate its mandate as both college and association. This came just before the Government of Alberta’s announcement that legislative changes to Bill 46, the Health Statutes Amendment Act, now required that all regulatory bodies separate themselves from performing association activities. This separation was not unique across Canada—most of the provinces and territories either followed suit after Alberta or had this separation in place beforehand.
CARNA could no longer be both the college and the association. The college set a single mandate to focus on setting regulatory standards for registered nurses and nurse practitioners. Its name changed to the College of Registered Nurses of Alberta (CRNA).
CRNA now had the immense opportunity to launch a nursing association. A process that was two years in the undertaking.
“The very first meeting was January 2021, in the middle of the pandemic,” Margaret Edwards (RN), Board of Directors past president, recalled. “We had to decide, do we want to represent all nursing disciplines or just CRNA members?”
It was quickly decided that it was paramount the new association should represent all of Alberta’s nursing disciplines. A small group of LPNs, NPs, RNs, and RPNs were tasked with building that association to meet the professional needs of all Alberta’s nurses.
“The first two years we never met in person,” Edwards said. “From that first meeting, we had to develop everything about an association. We had a blank piece of paper. What do we want to call the association? How do we set up the governance? For a year and a half, we met once a week, because there were so many questions.”
The association had to fulfill unique activities that the union, regulatory college, and employers did not. The board of directors had to think about incorporating everything from professional development activities to advocacy, networking events, and member discounts; the association needed to advance the nursing profession for its members and to the government and public.
In 2022, May 9, the Alberta Association of Nurses (AAN) formally launched.
On AAN’s launch day, Kathy Howe, AAN CEO said, “Providing a strong, unified voice for the nursing profession is something all Alberta nurses have long deserved. LPN, NP, RN, RPN, nursing student, or retired nurse – wherever you fit, you belong here.”
The association reached 10,000 members in January 2023, and while that number has fluctuated since, the Alberta Association of Nurses is a critical pillar for the nursing profession, built by Alberta’s nurses for Alberta’s nurses.
With its members’ support, AAN will amplify nurses’ voices, bring nursing issues to the forefront of politics, advocate for nurses, and bring change where it’s needed.
All Alberta nurses belong here.
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Key events timeline
Full nursing history timeline
The AAN also made a more fulsome account of key historical milestones from Alberta’s nursing history that includes more detail than the above infographic.
- Download the pdf timeline here.
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Author
Lindsay Eckert, Communications Lead, AAN
