Prior to the 16th century 1–500 AD (approximately) – Religious organizations provided nursing and palliative care for individuals and families. 55 AD – Phoebe is traditionally associated with early Christian nursing and is described as a deaconess. (cited in ) 300 – Entry of Christian women into nursing. c. 390 AD – The first general hospital was established in Rome by Saint Fabiola. c. 620 AD – Rufaida Al-Aslamia became the first Muslim nurse.

16th century 1517 The Protestant Reformation – the breakdown of religious orders meant that monasteries, hospitals and nursing care facilities were closed in most Protestant areas.

17th century

1618–1648 – The Thirty Years' War – Catholic–Protestant wars rocked Europe, killing 8 million. 1633 – The founding of the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul, Servants of the Sick Poor by Sts. Vincent de Paul and Louise de Marillac. The community would not remain in a convent, but would nurse the poor in their homes, "having no monastery but the homes of the sick, their cell a hired room, their chapel the parish church, their enclosure the streets of the city or wards of the hospital." 1645 – French nurse Jeanne Mance established Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal, North America's first hospital. 1654 and 1656 – Sisters of Charity cared for the wounded on the battlefields at Sedan and Arras in France. 1660 – Over 40 houses of the Sisters of Charity existed in France and several in other countries; the sick poor were helped in their own houses in 26 parishes in Paris.

18th century The 18th century was considered the Age of Reason. A lot of myths were contradicted by scientific fact. Jamaican "doctresses" such as Cubah Cornwallis, Sarah Adams and Grace Donne, the mistress and healer to Jamaica's most successful planter, Simon Taylor, had great success using hygiene and herbs to heal the sick and wounded.Moira Ferguson, Nine Black Women (London: Routledge, 1998), p. 68.

19th century

1810s 1811 – The grand re-opening of Sydney Hospital (founded 1788 as a tent hospital). Convict men and women undertook the nursing.

1820s c. 1820 – Ex-slave Jane Minor opens a hospital in Petersburg, Virginia. 1820 – Florence Nightingale (1820–1910) born at Villa La Columbaia in Florence (12 May).

1830s 1838 – The first trained nurses arrived in Sydney, they were five Irish Sisters of Charity. 1839 – Nursing Society of Philadelphia (NSP).

1840s 1840 – Settlement of New Zealand as a colony and the establishment of state hospitals. 1841 – People considered to be mentally-ill were considered criminals. The first case of insanity in New Zealand's society was recorded in 1841 in 1844 – Dorothea Dix testifies to the New Jersey legislature regarding the state's poor treatment of patients with mental illness. 1847 – Wellington Hospital was established, the first New Zealand hospital. 1848 – The Yarra Bend Asylum was opened so that the mentally-ill could be moved out of jail. This asylum was later known as Melbourne.

1850s

1850 – Instructional school for nurses opened by NSP. 1850 – Florence Nightingale, a pioneer of modern nursing, begins her training as a nurse at the Institute of St. Vincent de Paul at Alexandria, Egypt. 1851 – Florence Nightingale completed her nursing training at Kaiserwerth, Germany, a Protestant religious community with a hospital facility. She was there for approximately 3 months, and at the end, her teachers declared her trained as a nurse. 1851 – Mary Seacole travelled to Panama, where she worked at healing sufferers from cholera and other diseases. 1853 – Crimean War. 1853 – Seacole returned to the Colony of Jamaica, where she worked at healing sufferers from yellow fever. 1853 – Florence Nightingale went to Paris to study with the Sisters of Charity and was later appointed superintendent of the English General Hospitals in Turkey. 1854 – The first lunatic asylum was opened in Wellington, New Zealand. 1854 – Florence Nightingale appointed as the Superintendent of Nursing Staff. 1854 – Florence Nightingale and 38 volunteer nurses are sent to Turkey on October 21 to assist with caring for the injured of the Crimean War. 1854 – In a letter written November 15, 1854, to Dr Bowman, Florence Nightingale gives definite statistics: 1855 – Mary Seacole leaves London on January 31 to establish a "British Hotel" at Balaklava in the Crimea, where she nursed wounded British soldiers using herbs and practised good hygiene. 1856 – Biddy Mason is granted her freedom and moves to Los Angeles. She works as a nurse and midwife and becomes a successful businesswoman. 1856 – The Melbourne Lying-in Hospital and Infirmary for Diseases Peculiar to Women and Children was established. 1856 – A charitable organisation known as the Nightingale Fund for Nursing was founded in Britain, to commemorate Nightingale's work in the Crimean War. 1856 – Establishment of Melbourne Lying-in Hospital and Infirmary for Diseases peculiar to Women and Children. 1857 – Ellen Ranyard creates the first group of paid social workers in England and pioneers the first district nursing programme in London. 1857 – The Sisters of Charity opened the first St Vincent's Hospital in Potts Point, Sydney Australia. Today, the St Vincent's hospitals provide a considerable proportion of public health services. 1857 – Seacole published her autobiography, The Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands. 1859 – Florence Nightingale published her views on nursing care in "Notes on Nursing". The basis of nursing practice was based on her ideas from this.

1860s 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. 1860 – Florence Nightingale publishes "Note on Nursing: What it is and what it is not" 1860 – state that the Nightingale training school for nurses in England at the St Thomas' hospital, London was established at this time. 1860–1883 – As 16,000 single women emigrated to New Zealand, 582 identified their occupation as a nurse (including 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 during the period 1860 to 1883. In 1861 – Sally Louisa Tompkins opens a hospital for Confederate soldiers in July. She is later made an officer in the army, the only woman to receive that honor. 1861–1865 – The American Civil War, American Army nurses corps. 1863 – The International Red Cross was established in Geneva, Switzerland, by five private individuals,Science museum, n.d. 1865 – Mary Tattersall, a nurse who served in the Crimean War arrived was Timaru Hospital's first matron. 1867 – Jane Currie Blaikie Hoge publishes her memoirs of nursing in the Union Army, The Boys in Blue. 1868 – Lucy Osburn and her four Nightingale nurses arrived at Sydney Infirmary (later Sydney Hospital). 1868 – Sir Henry Parkes requested that Nightingale is to provide trained nurses for New South Wales. 1868 – Cathinka Guldberg, who had trained as a Deaconess at Kaiserswerth, started the first nursing school in Norway at the Deaconess Institute of Christiania and became its first director.

1870s 1870 – New Zealand had 37 hospitals as a result of the population increase of the Gold Rush. 1871 – Nightingale-trained matron appointed to the Alfred Hospital, Melbourne. 1872–1873 – formal nursing training programs were established, establishment of formal education. 1873 – Linda Richards graduates from the New England Hospital for Women and Children Training School for Nurses and officially becomes America's First Trained Nurse. 1873 – The first nursing school in the United States, based on Florence Nightingale's principles of nursing, opens at Bellevue Hospital, New York City. 1874 – Group of Anglican nuns arrive in South Africa (Bloemfontein) to work as nurses. Among them was Sr. Henrietta Stockdale who started the first training for nurses in Africa. 1876 – The Japanese term (Kangofu 看護婦 or nurse) is used for the first time. 1879 – Mary Eliza Mahoney graduates from the New England Hospital for Women and Children Training School for Nurses and becomes the first black professional nurse in the U.S.

1880s

1881 – Clara Barton becomes the first president of the American Red Cross, which she founded. 1881 – Created the first Portuguese Nursing School at Coimbra, Portugal. 1881 – Seacole died in Paddington, London. 1882 – The inspector of hospitals in New Zealand sent for Nightingale nurses from Britain. 1884 – Mary Agnes Snively, the first Ontario nurse trained according to the principles of Florence Nightingale, assumes the position of Lady Superintendent of the Toronto General Hospital's School of Nursing. 1885 – Following the Hospital and Charitable Aids Act, conditions improved.(MacDonald, 1990). 1885 – The first nurse training institute is established in Japan, thanks to the pioneering work of Linda Richards. 1886 – The first regular training school in India is established in Bombay, with funds provided by the governor general. 1886 – The Nightingale, the first American nursing journal, is published. online 1886 – Spelman Seminary establishes the first nursing program specifically for African-Americans. 1888 – The monthly journal The Trained Nurse begins publication in Buffalo, New York.

1890s

1890 – English nurse Kate Marsden, founder of the St. Francis Leprosy Guild, travels to Yakutia, Siberia in search of a herb reputed to cure leprosy. 1891 – Cape Colony establishes the first nursing registration in the British Empire. 1891 – Hampton University began as the Hampton Training School for Nurses in conjunction with Kings Chapel Hospital for Colored and Indian Boys and the Abbey Mae Infirmary. This school was started on the campus of Hampton Institute at Strawberry Banks in what is now the City of Hampton, Virginia. On this campus sits the Emancipation Oak, the site of the first reading of the Emancipation Proclamation in the South. Alice Bacon was instrumental in starting the Hampton Training School for Nurses. The school was commonly called Dixie Hospital, now known as the Sentara Hampton CarePlex, and its first graduate was Anna DeCosta Banks. Elnora D. Daniel, the first black nurse to serve as the president of a university [Chicago State University] was Dean of Hampton University School of Nursing in the 1980s. 1891 – Daniel Hale Williams founds Provident Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, the first interracial hospital and training school for black nurses and interns. 1893 – Lillian Wald, the founder of the Visiting Nurse Service of New York in the U.S. begins teaching a home class on nursing for Lower East Side (New York) women after a trying time at an orphanage where children were maltreated. 1893 – The Nightingale Pledge, composed by Lystra Gretter, is first used by the graduating class at the old Harper Hospital in Detroit, Michigan in the spring. 1893 – Ellen Dougherty (later New Zealand's and the world's first registered nurse) began working as matron of Palmerston North Hospital. 1893 - Rebecca Strong started the first training school for nurses at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, based on Nightingale's model, and her methods were later widely adopted by the profession. 1897 – The American Nurses Association holds its first meeting in February as the "Associated Alumnae of Trained Nurses of the United States and Canada". 1897 – Jane Delano becomes Superintendent of Bellevue Hospital.Arlington National Cemetery – Notable Graves – Medicine 1899 – Japan establishes a licensing system for modern nursing professionals with the introduction of the Midwives Ordinance.