Canada's nursing sisters played a vital role in the care of wounded soldiers during WWII. By the war's end some 3,649 women had served in the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps (RCAMC), 481 had served in the Royal Canadian Air Force and 343 in the Royal Canadian Navy. Nurses who served in the forces were always referred to as nursing sisters or n/s. All nursing sisters were commissioned officers. This gave them positions of relative authority within the forces.

Training

Recruits had to be British subjects between the ages of 21 and 36, nursing school graduates registered with the professional association within their province, and single women or widows without children.

The RCAMC demanded a course be passed by all recruits, and they were required to qualify before an examining board in military law.

Stress was placed on physical fitness, and 'PT,' or physical training, became an important part of the new recruit's life.

An obstacle to enlistment from 1939 until 1943 was the regulation which prohibited marriage during any woman's military service. This regulation was changed after much concern and heartache. Among the 466 nursing sisters who resigned from the RCAMC, some 300 indicated marriage as the reason.

"Modern nursing may be said to have emerged from the demonstration of nurses' effectiveness during a period of war."
—Janet Ross-Kerr, Prepared to Care, 1998