This study aims to reflect about Nursing as a health profession in the light of Eliot Freidson's theory of professions. It approaches the necessary credentials for an occupation to be recognized as a profession, relating them to the nursing's characteristics, with a special focus in Brazil. In Freidson's approach, expertise, autonomy and self-regulation are highlighted as professional credentials. Nursing is analyzed by emphasizing its responsibility for a range of tasks whose performance is based on scientific knowledge, on the need of specific professional training, on the knowledge availability and the State recognition of formal credentials for the professional member's protection. It concludes that Nursing is a health profession with a key role in the health's reality transformation and that investment is needed to convince society about its usefulness as a profession dedicated to people's health needs.
Nursing; Professional autonomy; Sociology; Professional Practice