The Brazilian Nurses Association and the development of nursing in Brazil--a path under construction

Through the concept of memory by Walter Benjamin, the authors of the present study identify relevant facts of the Brazilian Association of Nursing (ABEn) that affected the development of nursing in Brazil. The investigation points out the participation of ABEn in the regulation of the nursing field, creation of Revista Brasileira de Enfermagem (Brazilian Journal of Nursing), promotion of the Congressos Brasileiros de Enfermagem (Brazilian Congresses of Nursing) and its importance on the political struggle for better health conditions in Brazil.     

REBEn in the context of the history of Brazilian nursing: the significance of remembering Dr. Glete de Alcântara

This is a Social History study which aims at recuperating the professional trajectory of Glete de Alcantara in the Revista Brasileira de Enfermagem/REBEn (Brazilian Journal of Nursing), initially called Anais de Enfermagem. It is based on the concept of memory of Maurice Halbwach, and on the concept of generation of Daniel Pécaut. The study contextualizes the professional development of Glete de Alcantara in the history of the Brazilian nursing, highlighting the creation of the Nursing School of the University of S?o Paulo (EERP/USP) in Ribeir?o Preto. The sources for the study were documents obtained in the Centro de Memória da Escola de Enfermagem (Memory Center of the School of Nursing) of Ribeir?o Preto and in ABEN (Brazilian Association of Nursing) in Brasília. Data obtained in this association were mainly collected from its record books the journals.     

Telling a beautiful story: the trajectory of the Brazilian Nurses Association-Bahia

This study presents the story of the Brazilian Association of Nursing in Bahia federal state. It parallels the trajectory of this association to the history of the National Brazilian Association of Nursing, pointing out the most important events in its fifty-three years of work. It is clear that the history of the Brazilian Association of Trained Nurses (ABED)/ABEn-Bahia begins with the foundation of the Nursing School of the Federal University of Bahia. Teachers at this university, who were nurses in their home states, and had participated in other associations previously, were motivated to create a new branch of ABEn in Bahia. The branch of ABEn in the city of Feira de Santana-Bahia, had a similar trajectory, since it was also founded after the creation of the State University of Feira de Santana. The branch of ABEn in Bahia is considered a democratic association, which is attentive to the claims of the nursing professionals, the health of the Brazilian population and also to the strengthening of the organization.     

Rachel Haddock Lobo: her professional life and her contribution to REBEn

This is a historical study that analyses the formation process of the professional habitus of Rachel Haddock Lobo through the reconstruction of her biography. It also analyses her contribution as 1st editor in chief of Revista Annaes de Enfermagem (Brazilian Journal of Nursing), in 1932, which is currently called Revista Brasileira de Enfermagem. The preferential primary sources of this study included written documents and the oral testimony of one of Rachel Haddock Lobo's family members. Both sources were obtained from Centro de Documenta??o da Escola de Enfermagem Ana Nery (Documentation Center of Ana Neri School of Nursing). Data were analyzed through the concepts of habitus and social configuration by Norbert Elias. The analysis showed that Rachel Haddock Lobo gave expressive contribution to the creation process of the journal referred, which, on its turn, had an strategic importance on the formation of the identity of the Brazilian nursing professionals at that time.     

The nursing schools of the Brazilian Red Cross and the beginnings of professional nursing in Brazil

This article discusses the generation of professional nursing in Brazil and the role of Brazilian Red Cross Training School for Nurses, founded in Rio de Janeiro, in 1910. The analysis is based on different sorts of documents such as articles published in medical journals and advertisements published in daily newspapers, nursing manuals, statutes, minutes of meetings. It discusses recurrent crystallized statements presented in the History of Brazilian Nursing, such as the relation between the professionalization of nursing in Brazil to the arrival of the Rockefeller Mission, and the importance attributed to Dona Anna Nery School of Nursing, founded in 1923 in Rio de Janeiro, as the precursor of nursing education in this country.     

Brazilian Nursing Association, Sergipe section: 52 years of will, claw, and heart

This is a contribution for the history of nursing from Sergipe and, as a consequence, for the Brazilian Nursing. It aims at rescuing the Brazilian Nursing Association, Sergipe's Section history and to document the accomplishment of this entity into the scientific, cultural and political scenery. A qualitative research, whose data were collected by means of oral and official history registered on books, journals, and other documents. Data were submitted to content analysis. That history is presented by some characters from this plot, indicating that present may be an answer from the past because it contains the writing of the history founded by its actor's will. It was concluded that rethinking Brazilian Nursing Association, Sergipe's Section history is rethinking our own capability of interaction with the category.     

Changes in the practice of nursing in the 30s

This report belongs to the research line "The professional practice and identity building of the Brazilian Nurse", developed by a group registered at the CNPq and Research Center of History of Brazilian Nursing (Nuphebras) of the School of Nursing Anna Nery, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. The objectives of this study are: correlate the institutional changes of Nursing in the Brazilian society of that time to the accentuated political and economical transition of the country; analyze the effects of those institutional changes in the nurse's labor market and in the characteristics of nursing practice; discuss the new articulation forms of nursing with other social practices inside the area of health. National public health nursing, in order to accompany the enlargement of the bureaucratic State, expanded and modified. At the same time, in a context of a protectionist policy to the worker, an incentive policy to the opening of new, public and private hospitals, was developed, although Nursing services of those institutions were not organized according to the patterns that characterized the modern Nursing. Thus, the practice of Nursing in the 30's is characterized as the beginning of the transition of a model of urban public health to a model of hospital assistance.     

Use of the computer as a tool for the implementation of the nursing process

This text article has as its objective to analyze the use of the computer as a tool in the work process of the nursing professional. There are many evidences that informatics has revolutionized work processes in different service structures such as health care, education and management. Therefore, informatics is conducting Nursing to a systematic and organized practice that has propitiated individualized care to the patient. The authors describe software that gives support to the planning of Nursing Assistance and make some considerations aiming at the development and modernization of the Brazilian Nursing practice.     

Psychiatric nursing and modern nursing in Rio de Janeiro: a history lesson

The present study is the result of an essay written for the discipline Research Laboratory of Nursing History. It refers to the interest and struggle of the Brazilian Association of Nursing (ABEN), in the 1940s, in Rio de Janeiro, to make professionals of this area aware of the need of the inclusion of nursing in the psychiatric field in Rio de Janeiro. Our objective is to present the difficulties of this insertion, although the beginnings and the regulation of the nursing profession in Brazil started in a school of nursing, in the Psychiatric Hospital of Rio de Janeiro. In order to present the difficulties for this inclusion, we analyzed the documents that prescribed the regulation of the nursing profession, in the psychiatric area of the hospital mentioned above. Results indicate that standards established by Anna Nery Nursing School were broken, since psychiatric assistance was denied by this school until 1949, while the Nursing School Alfredo Pinto provided this kind of care since 1890. It is important to point out the strategic and historical role of ABEn as the coordinator and motivator of discussions regarding the course of the nursing profession.     

A gender reading about the (re)inauguration of a female practice: from England to Brazil

It is a gender reading of Florence Nightingale's main work, "Notes on Nursing: what is and what isn't", a book which brings together the principles and essential elements of modern nursing, professionalized in England in the second half of the XIX century and the way the profession was constituted in Brazil, as explicited in the work of Glete de Alcantara: "Modern nursing as a professional category: obstacles to its expansion in Brazilian society", the first nursing dissertation produced in the country, in 1963. It verified that in both situations the specificities of the nursing profession intermixes with that of the female working world.     

The use of REBEn as source in 2 strict sense programs the city of Rio de Janeiro

This paper is concerned with the use of REBEn (Brazilian Journal of Nursing) in dissertations and theses produced in two public programs in Rio de Janeiro. OBJECTIVES: 1) to investigate the impact of this journal in the production of the knowledge in the field of nursing from 1992 to 2001, and 2) to analyze, comparatively, the use of the journal in theses and dissertations. Document analysis was done, based on bibliographical references. Data were analyzed quantitatively. The study demonstrated that REBEn remains an important publication for the development scientific knowledge in the nursing field. Approximately 50% of the authors cite it in dissertations, and 60% cite it in theses. Literature revision was numerically smaller in dissertations compared to theses. Regarding theses, 1995 was the year in which there were more references from REBEn.     

The Revista Brasileira de Enfermagem: presenting perspectives for its analysis

This essay proposes a reflection on different perspectives for analyzing the Brazilian Journal of Nursing. The journal, which is considered an instrument for the diffusion of knowledge and ideology of the nursing field, has been the object of few studies. In this essay, the authors adopt as theoretical reference the signification triangle of Pierre Levy and aspects of the feminist theory. The authors believe the journal should be analyzed as an object that produces, in its relation with nursing professionals, elements that constitute a culture, knowledge and symbology of the Brazilian nursing.     

Nursing research on classifications: the Brazilian experience

This is an evaluation of Brazilian scientific production on nursing classifications, presented during the 6th National Symposium on Nursing Diagnosis and 1st International Symposium on Nursing Classification, held in S?o Paulo city on August 2002. Four different types of research studies were identified being developed in the country, and the participation of Brazilian nurses at NANDA's last five biennial conferences was measured, as an indicator of this production.     

Adaptation and validation of the "Positions on Nursing Diagnosis" tool to Portuguese language

The Positions on Nursing Diagnosis tool (PND) was developed in English to assess nurses' attitudes toward nursing diagnosis. AIMS: To adapt and validate the PND to Portuguese Brazilian language; and to verify associations between PND and selected variables. The Brazilian version of PND, named Posi??es frente ao Diagnóstico de Enfermagem (PDE), was obtained by translation, back-translation, and comparison between the original version and the back-translated one. The PDE was applied to 400 nurses and nursing students. The PDE scores were positively correlated with a general statement favorable to nursing diagnosis; the factor analysis produced 3 factors (evaluative, potency, and activity). The nursing students showed more favorable attitudes toward nursing diagnosis.     

History of the legislation for the nursing profession in Brazil

This article outlines the contribution of the Brazilian Association of Nursing (ABEn) in the study, discussion and approval of laws and regulations that have significant impact on the nursing profession. It points out that ABEn has always had an active, pacific and accurate way of working. It emphasizes that the association has dealt with de law making-body and executive members of the government, based on technical arguments and secondary data in order to comply with the nursing professional's needs.     

Brazilian Nursing Association: 70 years of struggle for life

This work is about the Brazilian Nursing Association (ABEn), its origin, its expansion and projection based on its philosophy and highlighting its achievements from its origin in 1926 until today when its 70th anniversary is being celebrated. This work aims at reporting this institution history and narrating the support provided so that nursing may contribute decisively to the construction of a body of profession knowledge itself, the legal definition of professional practice, teaching regulamentation through its commissions. Methodology has been composed of bibliographic research and interviews with active professionals. It has been concluded that ABEn is stronger and stronger and aware of the way on how to achieve many other goals which will bear great conquests which will contribute for granting nursing power and space as a profession set to the human, therefore, to a better life, with more love, peace and social justice.