A pioneer in nursing and medicine: Annie Amelia Chesley

Annie Amelia Chesley

Section 26, Lot 9 SW

Annie Amelia Chesley was born in 1857 or 1858 near Toronto. Annie Amelia Chesley was born into a family that had a lengthy association with public service. Nothing much is known of Annie’s early years.

She trained as a nurse between 1893 and 1896 at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD, where she remained as a head nurse until early 1898. In 1897, St Luke’s Hospital was founded in Ottawa, along with an associated training-school for nurses. Chesley was named lady superintendent at St Luke’s. Her role was a dual one.

St. Luke’s Hospital - Frank Street at Elgin - Ottawa’s first protestant general hospital served the city from the early 1890s until it was replaced by the newer and larger Ottawa Civic Hospital on Carling Avenue around 1920. In building the new hospital the city acquired the redundant St. Luke's. Ottawa retained the property, and it briefly served as relief housing during the depression. After that it was demolished as a make-work project and the property was converted to a city park. The large house at 177 Frank Street was originally the nurses’ residence, and the name lives on in St. Luke's Park.

First, she administered the 30-bed institution, which included supervising health and dietary care. In the early years she was required personally to order the food and medical supplies and oversee the dietary kitchen.

Second, she set and administered the curriculum for the three-year training program for nurses. In its first three years, Chesley received 300 applications for admission and from these she selected 30; the initial class of seven graduated in 1901.

Although the nurses’ regimen emphasized a scientific approach, St Luke’s blended this aspect of their training with traditional forms of health care. It was thus regarded as a “family hospital.” The formal course of study included lectures during the day from Chesley and her four assistants and in the evening from local doctors. The “continuous course of practical demonstrations” involved hourly examinations of patients’ vital statistics and the keeping of detailed records.

Students also took practical studies and were responsible for much of the cleaning and upkeep of the facility. The student nurses also number performed practical work for periods of a few months in other local hospitals. Regarding her position as one of senior management, Chesley stressed the separation of her administrative team from the group of student nurses.

Thus, while she yearly awarded a personal medal to her most outstanding pupil, there is little evidence of a less formal, or warm, relationship between Chesley and the students. In addition to her responsibilities at St Luke’s, Annie Chesley was active in the wider nursing profession. She served as first president of the Ottawa Graduate Nurses Association.

With several nursing associates, she established the first central registry for professional nurses in Ottawa; it probably attempted to identify certified nurses in the area and perhaps suggest appropriate names to private households in need of nursing care.

In 1910, a long illness necessitated Chesley’s retirement, and she died on November 6, 1910, less than eight months later in the hospital that had become her home.

She was mourned by her “graduates.” Although she had seen herself primarily as an administrator of students rather than as their counsellor, she had been, the Canadian Nurse recalled, “ever ready to advise and encourage, ever interested in their sorrows and joys and ready to lend a sympathetic ear.”