Participation of American nurses in the Brazilian nursing professionalization 1942 - 1961

Author(s)

Bárbara Barrionuevo Bonini

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola de Enfermagem (EE/SBD)
• Defense date: 2014-10-02

Examining board members

Genival Fernandes de Freitas; Almerinda Moreira; Taka Oguisso; Tiago Braga do Espirito Santo; Osnir Claudiano da Silva Junior

• Advisor: Genival Fernandes de Freitas

Abstract

Introduction: The history of Brazilian nursing has suffered throughout its path strong American influence. Its design was conceived and guided, in the early twentieth century in the American nursing model. However, it was in the 1940s, through the cooperation agreement between Brazil and the United States that the influence gained more force. The agreement, which lasted from 1942 to 1961, encouraged the establishment of the Special Service of Public Health (SESP) and enabled the work of qualified professionals in Brazil, among them American nurses, which were aimed at modernizing and expanding schools and health services, thus expanding the knowledge and appreciation of the nursing profession in Brazilian soil. Objectives: Historicize the historical constituents that guided the coming of American nurses to Brazil, in the period of 1942-1961; describe their actions and trajectories; analyze the relations of power between the Brazilian and American groups and the ramifications of these relationships and the role of these women to the development of Brazilian nursing. Method: This is a descriptive study of cultural and historical approach, which utilized as source reports drafted by American nurses, who reported their impressions, suggestions, criticisms and activities in the country. The discourse analysis, proposed by Michel Foucault for the treatment of the data, was chosen because it allows the analysis of relations of power-knowledge-subjectivity and the resistance that permeated the discourses and, in this case, permeated the activities of this group of women. The Foucaultian framework allows for the historical analysis, not only to understand the past but also the present and, through them, think about the future. Results and discussion: The period studied was marked by the expansion of modern nursing in Brazil, through increasing the number of health services and schools of nursing, the change in the curriculum of these schools, by the creation of other professional categories, through the new representations of the profession and by changes in the identity and recognition of it in the country. These changes were stimulated by the presence of American nurses in the country through the activities developed by them through SESP and were marked by struggles for power and control between Brazilians and Americans regarding the conduct of the profession across the country. Conclusion: This study indicates the contribution of American nurses in the development of the Brazilian nursing and its consolidation in the period studied, through its appropriate scientific discourse and the strong influence and control exercised by them. However, the period and the discourses analyzed point out how the Brazilian Nursing resisted the influence of the American model trying, little by little, to appropriate the knowledge and discourses of nursing in that time, adapting it to the Brazilian reality and developing its own nursing identity (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 12/24314-1 - Participation of american nurses in the professionalization of Brazilian nursing: 1942- 1961.
• Grantee: Bárbara Barrionuevo Bonini
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate