Dusting off the looking‐glass: A historical analysis of the development of a nursing identity in Chile

Abstract

Histories of nursing that disregard their linkage to broader historical movements often lead to historically detached versions of nursing identity that omit the perspective of their sources and the ideas of their time. Drawing on materials retrieved through a multilayered research strategy comprising internal and external sources, this article examines the development of a nursing identity in Chile during the period starting in the 1950s through the early 2000s. We analysed the sociopolitical contexts in which the nursing profession grew, the changing direction of its role and how the nursing identity transformed itself. Through the use of historical sources and oral testimonies, we aim to give a nuanced account of how the history of public health and that of the country more broadly changed the object of identification of nurses, creating only relatively recently a sense of nursing community. Processes of identification, fragmentation and integration are highlighted, which challenge usual notions of history as a linear process.

Historia De La Enfermería Chilena: Una Revisión Desde Las Fuentes

“…Según lo anterior, es posible señalar que la historia de la enfermería escrita en los artículos y libros explorados constituye un almacén de memoria empírica respecto a la identidad de las enfermeras chilenas y de sus controversias durante la época del siglo XX, y así queda de manifiesto en los artículos de Ayala y Núñez (11) , de Núñez, Urra y Pavez (12) y de Ayala et al (13) . Asimismo, la realización de libros sobre Historia de Escuelas de Enfermería de la Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile y de la Universidad de Valparaíso son la expresión de la historia como un instrumento de transmisión de valores y actitudes del cuidado con la impronta de dichas instituciones, la primera al mundo católico y la segunda vinculada al mundo laico de la profesión enfermería.…”

“…RESULTADOS 1. Elementos historiográficos en la producción científica de artículos y tesis En el artículo de Ayala y Núñez (11) escogen a la enfermería chilena como su sujeto de observación, por la necesidad de descubrir el desarrollo de la identidad de las enfermeras durante los años cincuenta y comienzos del decenio del año 2000. Los autores concluyen que estudiar la historia de la enfermería chilena permitió identificar que esta identidad no se desarrolló en un proceso lineal, sino que fueron más bien movimientos superpuestos que trascendieron a lo largo del tiempo, permitiendo dibujar la construcción de la identidad de la enfermería como una comunidad en Chile.…”

Bringing History Back In: A Network of Nursing History in Chile Has Started Life

“…Not least, in the capital as well as in other regions the right cultural ambience for this had form, owing partly to the demilitarization of history in the country, and also partly the subsequent interest in understanding the social milieu from a historical perspective among students. Similar developments had taken place among nurses, with a noticeable interest in trade associationism at many different levels, the interest to know the consequences of dictatorship along with the politization of problems such as employment precarity, among other issues nationwide 17 .…”

The system of nursing in Chile: Insights from a systems theory perspective

“…A very telling example of the type of linkage between profession and discipline is the use of the university status and the length of the studies as a part of the prerogatives in profession building (Ayala, Vanderstraeten et al., ). Nurses argue that reducing the number of years, or worse, moving out of universities, would lead to losing status as well as the mystique surrounding the graduate professions (Ayala & Núñez, ). Similarly, and in the same process of controlling its knowledge base, the system of nursing education serves as a differentiation medium (Koch et al., ), one that inculcates that ‘we do something that the rest do not, and we do it well’.…”

“…To a large extent, education organises the profession around what it is and what it does, which is often encompassed by moralistic mandates, creation myths or other rhetorical constructions of ‘someone above’ (Dingwall, ) who underlines separation from others and demands internal cohesion. Unlike in other areas, such as the humanities or the social sciences, in the case of nursing it is very eloquent that nurses encourage that they are trained only by other nurses (Ayala & Núñez, ). Likewise, the name of the study programmes is the same as that of the discipline and that of the profession; this being the same as that of the positions in the job market, which reflects an interdependent condition that may be interpreted as tacit ideological continuity.…”