In the past, the words used for designating caregivers were ambiguous. The word “nurse” gradually became widely used, mainly in the feminine form due to the need for specialized staff. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, health care facilities were developed, the remains of which can be found in today’s hospitals (the Salpêtrière and the Hôtel-Dieu in Paris for example). The government of Louis XIV cared for poor sick people, vagabonds, and beggars. It opened new general hospitals, which would later be established throughout the whole of Europe. In the seventeenth century, the staff of the General Hospital of Paris were entirely secular, and the hospital was run by the magistrates of the Parlement of Paris. Healthcare institutions such as the Hôtel-Dieu in Paris and the Hôtel-Dieu in Marseille employed both secular and religious staff. In the seventeenth century, there were 2000 secular caregivers in France. The order of the “Filles de la Charité” (gray sisters) wa exempt from the rule of enclosure, and they renewed their vows every year. According to their founders, Vincent de Paul and Louise de Marcillac, their convent should be the cells of the sick, the rooms of hospitals, and the streets of towns. Both secular and religious caregivers excelled in apothecary and they opened a network of small dispensaries. This improved the health of the French population and enabled people to fight epidemics. This activity allowed some women to carry out rewarding work and to have a social status with which they were evidently satisfied.