History
A push by the nurses’ alumnae of the Saint John General Public Hospital to form a provincial nursing association in the early 1900’s resulted in the formation of the New Brunswick Association of Graduate Nurses in 1916, with the passage of the Registered Nurses Act. Across Canada, New Brunswick was third to enact nursing legislation, preceded only by Nova Scotia (1910) and Manitoba (1913).
Early Association issues dealt with support for women’s suffrage in 1917 and fighting unemployment within the profession in 1932. The first registration examinations in New Brunswick were held in 1919.
With the passage of the Act of Incorporation in 1957, the Association received a new name the New Brunswick Association of Registered Nurses (NBARN) and an expansion of its regulatory responsibilities.
The Nurses Act 1984 is the most recent legislation governing nursing affairs. It is this new legislation that gave the Association its current name, the Nurses Association of New Brunswick (NANB), and granted it the authority to regulate the nursing profession in New Brunswick.
