Ibero-American Symposium on History of Nursing: new perspectives of intellectual production in the history of nursing

Abstracts

A produção intelectual apresentada no I Simpósio Ibero-Americano de História da Enfermagem foi organizada a partir de três eixos temáticos: antropologia do cuidado, história das instituições de ensino, de assistência e agremiações de enfermagem e história de vida, totalizando 198 estudos. Mediante os resultados apresentados a produção mostrada no simpósio apontou para a tendência dos estudos em história da enfermagem, nos eixos temáticos, pela ordem de interesse dos pesquisadores em: história das instituições, antropologia do cuidado e história de vida.

História da enfermagem; Cultura; Cuidados de enfermagem

CRITICAL REVIEW

Ibero-American Symposium on History of Nursing: new perspectives of intellectual production in the history of nursing

Coloquio Ibero-Americano de Historia de la Enfermería: nuevas perspectivas de la producción intelectual en historia de la enfermería

Almerinda Moreira^I; Fernando Porto^II; Genival Fernandes de Freitas^III; Paulo Fernando de Souza Campos^IV

^IPh.D. Professor. Alfredo Pinto School of Nursing at Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. [e-mail]

^IIStudent of the post doctorate program. School of Nursing, University of São Paulo. Professor at Alfredo Pinto School of Nursing at Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. [e-mail]

^IIIPh.D. Professor. School of Nursing, University of São Paulo. São Paulo, SP, Brazil. [e-mail]

^IVHistorian. Student of the post doctorate program. Department of Professional Guidance at School of Nursing, University of São Paulo. São Paulo, SP, Brazil. [e-mail]

Correspondence addressed to

ABSTRACT

Intellectual production presented in the I Symposium Ibero-American of Nursing History was organized in three thematic bases: anthropology care, history of the institutions of teaching, caring and associations of nursing and history of life, totalizing 198 researches. Results of production in the Symposium showed that tendency of the researches in the nursing history in the thematic bases, according with interest of researchers in: history of institutions, anthropology of care and history of life.

Key words: Nursing history. Culture. Nursing care.

RESUMEN

La producción intelectual presentada en el I Simposio Ibero-Americano de Historia de la Enfermería fue organizada a partir de tres bases temáticas: antropología del cuidado, historia de las instituciones de enseñanza, asistencia y agremiaciones de enfermería y historia de vida, totalizando 198 estudios. Mediante los resultados presentados, la producción presentada en el simposio reveló la tendencia de los estudios en historia de la enfermería, en las bases temáticas, por la orden de interés de los investigadores en: historia de las instituciones, antropología del cuidado y historia de vida.

Descriptores: Historia de la enfermería. Cultura. Atención de enfermería.

INTRODUCTION

From October 29 to 31 2007, in the city of São Paulo, the 1^st Ibero-American Symposium in History of Nursing (I SIHAE, abbreviation in Portuguese) was held, with the central theme Memory and Professional Identity. The event was promoted by the University of São Paulo School of Nursing (EEUSP, abbreviation in Portuguese), with the support from fourteen institutions including public and funding departments, public and private hospitals, schools and professional associations, as the International Council of Nurses. The symposium promotion integrated the celebration of the 65 years of EEUSP and the 15 years of the Culture History Center of Ibero-American Nursing. Furthermore, it contributed with the integration of researchers and study groups, with discussions about the difficulties involved in knowledge production, and analyzing the past of nursing history and the social role of nurses.

The purposes of this 1^st Symposium were to promote the discussion about academic production regarding the History of Nursing. Without underestimating the classic studies, about the great characters in nursing, the event permitted to acknowledge other histories of the many nursing practitioners, offering a significant contribution for the debates about memory and professional identity, what it means to be a nurse and its social representations.

From this perspective, the event permitted to evaluate that a history that is politics in essence, seen from above, written by hegemonic, secularly established groups, should not be the only possibility for reviewing the past. The I SIHAE was a moment to hold discussions about culturally differentiated themes and focuses. The studies addressed the long history of care, a branch of the history of nursing under construction in Brazil, and permitted to acknowledge the studies about ethnics, gender and institutional issues, with special emphasis on the memory of nursing schools, as well as issues regarding nursing education and care.

Before the SIHAE was held, the organizers used announcement strategies such as posters and virtual bulletins before the event. A website was created to provide information for those interested in participating in the event, and was informed among the academic community one year before the established date, with general information and the norms for submission.

The Symposium counted with the participation of researchers from countries of the Ibero-American world, such as Portugal, Spain, Chile, Peru, Colombia and Brazil, as well as representatives from the African and Asian continents, such as Cape Verde, Angola and Japan. Hiroko Minami, President of the International Council of Nurses - ICN, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, held the opening conference named History of the ICN: challenges and perspectives, which shows the prestige and position achieved by Brazil with the most accredited nursing organization in the world, mainly for the effective collaboration of one Brazilian nursing representative, Taka Oguisso, who worked with the ICN staff from 1980 to1990, and was the Honorary President of the event.

On the second day of the Symposium, the lecture Enfermería y cultura de los cuidados: una evolución histórica determinante para la construcción social, científica y professional de la disciplina, delivered by José Siles González, Professor at Universidad de Alicante, Spain, revealed the interfaces of nursing care considering values, behaviors, moral rules, and religion; and showed the how these themes can affect the process of care. The approached of life histories, of interest to nursing history, was addressed in the lectures Teresa Benides Vargas y la Evolución de la Enfermería Peruana and Maria Fernanda Rezende e Maria Nazareth Palheiro: duas enfermeiras portuguesas a não esquecer delivered by Lúcia Aranda Moreno, from Universidad Pedro Ruiz, Peru and by the President of the Portuguese Association of Nurses, Marília Viterbo de Freitas, respectively.

During the three days, several nursing history researchers presented and discussed themes pertinent to the areas proposed as theme lines. In this sense, presenting the intellectual production revealed in the 1^st Ibero-American Symposium on the History of Nursing sets a landmark on the field of research and shows the potential of the theme, a course that is relegated as a detriment of the perspective of knowing how to perform, as revealed by the current teaching legislation⁽¹⁾.

The Symposium, considering its multiple dimensions, can be considered a result of a feminine fight for keeping the historical memory of nursing alive in Brazil; a lesson learnt and taught by Edith de Magalhães Fraenkel, Waleska Paixão, Maria Rosa Sousa Pinheiro, Glete de Alcântara, Amália Correia de Carvalho, Anayde Correia de Carvalho, and more contemporarily, Ieda de Alencar Barreira, Nalva Pereira Caldas and Taka Oguisso, who organized the event. Other women dedicated themselves incessantly to preserving nursing history education as a legitimate field, imperious to professional development, specifically for those concerned not only with knowing how to perform and knowing to learn but knowing how to be a nurse.

Memory and Professional Identity: analysis of the intellectual production presented in the 1^st Ibero-American Symposium on the History of Nursing

To identify the intellectual production revealed by the SIAHE, a matrix was used, based on the pre-established theme lines and the researchers' names. By using the matrix to analyze the program of the event and the data from the annals, two demonstrative charts were obtained. The intellectual production, presented in the table, aimed at identifying the number of studies, according to the proposed theme lines, which included Care Anthropology, History of Nursing Teaching and Care Institutions and Associations, and History of life, with a total of 198 studies presented.

The theme line Culture of Care emphasized the comprehension of care as a product of reflecting about ideas, actions and circumstances (theoretical, practical and situational thought) related with the process of health needs, guaranteeing the integrity and harmony of each and every stage that compose human life^(2-4). Therefore, the anthropological study of care consist of a basic instrument to identify, on one hand, variants in the form of satisfying needs, and on the other hand, to explain the causes of that diversity and its corresponding meanings. In this perspective, culture has been considered, in essence, as the group of patent and latent behaviors of a community and implied in the process of meeting needs. Hence, with no doubt, we should study the mechanism of satisfying those needs, considering the different social contexts⁽³⁾.

In this perspective, Madeleine Leininger's Culture Care Diversity and Universality Theory (CCDUT) has been used in different countries and is considered an important theory for the development of culturally-based care. We believe that the overall view of the context experienced by Leininger and its influences for the construction of an internationally acknowledged nursing theory can be useful for those who wish to conduct cross-cultural nursing research to find a path to guide their care, teaching, and research practice⁽⁵⁾.

The theme line characterized as History of Nursing Teaching and Care Institutions and Associations assembled studies about social movements involving the nursing professional development (such as the creation of schools and workstation), the political needs of associations (creation and management of class organizations such as the Brazilian Nursing Association-ABEN, Federal Nursing Bard-COFEN and Regional Nursing Board-COREN), and similar organizations. By addressing the memory of education and work areas, the theme line joined most of the presented study communications, permitting to consider the approaches that the theme raised as one of the great centers of investigation in the history of nursing in Brazil.

The theme line identified as History of Life gathered researchers interested in the possibilities of biographies, micro-history, and recovering individual memories, that is, history agents, illustrious or unnamed, who constructed the history of nursing in the Ibero-American world. Symptomatically, the small number of studies about the personal trajectories of women (and men) permitted to recognize the need for investments in adequate research methodologies for the (new) fields of investigation in nursing, as revealed by the women's history. Though reduced, the potential of the theme line was perfectly adequate considering the tendencies of nursing history research, as did the gender issues.

The most expressive theme line on Table 1 was the History of Institutions, followed by Anthropology of Care and History of Life, with the smallest percentage. The result suggests that nursing history researchers study themes regarding teaching and health institutions. On the other hand, the table showed that there should be more investment from national researchers on the history of life of the main nursing protagonists in Brazil.

Another piece of information on Table 1 that should be emphasized is the theme line Anthropology of Care. This theme line showed the existing potential of the history of care and caregivers, which is practically unexplored referring to the mystical-religious, domestic, pre-professional, and professional periods. It is inferred that researchers, especially those from teaching institutions in Rio de Janeiro, have dedicated to studying symbolic aspects, rescuing the history of nursing by interpreting rites, emblems, and other symbols that comprise the nursing profession, revealing facts and improve the chances of analyzing the past of nursing.

The analysis matrix also evidenced the production of researchers regarding the frequency of their participation in studies. In other words, there were 309 researchers involved, 217 of which participated in one study; 41 in two studies; 24 in three studies; eight in four studies; and one in five studies. Based on the latter quantitative data, there was a cumulative increase in the participation of some researchers.

The increase occurred with six researchers in six studies; three in seven studies; two in eight studies; one in ten, 12, 13 and 16 studies. These data can mean associations among researchers in the sense of accumulating productions and strengthening research groups in the referred field of knowledge. Taking this information into consideration, Table 2 was created based on the criterion of producing a minimum of six studies per researcher participation.

Table 2

The study presentations, a criterion used to define the volume of intellectual production in the field of nursing history, in most cases, present an overlap of authors. The data that permitted to quantify the results, though raising the indexes for some researchers, cannot be evaluated as a one-way path. On the contrary, it permits to consider the existence of associations established between different research centers and groups, they reveal a potential increase of advisors for nursing history research, and show the necessary union for including this theme as a line of research, making it official with the funding and research organizations in Brazil and Latin America, especially considering that the vast majority of studies presented were originally developed in public higher education institutions.

It should, however, be stressed that the production of the author ranking first place pointed at the tendency of History of Institutions and Anthropology of Care, which did not occur with the second-place researcher, who potentially invested in History of Institutions. As for the author ranking third place in terms of presentations in the Symposium, there was production in different theme lines, which included Anthropology of Care and History of Institutions besides History of Life, but with more emphasis on the two former lines. The interests of the next researcher permit to consider the development of studies in the areas of History of Institutions and History of Life and also in the field considered as Anthropology of Care. Therefore, it is inferred that most researchers of the History of Nursing have been producing studies in the three theme lines quite successfully, which reveals the vigor of these areas in the production of historical knowledge in Ibero-American Nursing.

Overall, this analysis cannot be evaluated as the only possibility, but as the result of a preliminary analysis of the interests of groups that study the history of nursing. This is revealed by the rank position of one of the great Brazilian researchers of this theme, Ieda de Alencar Barreira, who has recurring intellectual production in the different theme lines, evidenced by the historiography of Brazilian nursing.

The results presented in Tables 1 and 2 are complementary in the sense that the researchers' investments strengthen the studies on nursing history, through institutions, or the anthropology of care or by the possibilities of the history of the lives of nursing characters.

It should be stressed that the event prepared the exhibition called Do Sagrado ao Profano: a indumentária e as representações da enfermagem (From Sacred to Profane: nursing clothing and representations), which presented, besides print and photographic documents, uniforms used by EEUSP students, as well as replicates of the clothes used by the renowned pioneer Florence Nightingale and the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul, caregivers by vocation⁽⁸⁾.

The event also promoted the launch of three books about the history of nursing: the second edition of the book organized by Taka Oguisso: Trajetória Histórica e Legal da Enfermagem (Historical and Legal Trajectory of Nursing), which counted with the participation of Almerinda Moreira, Genival Fernandes de Freitas and Paulo Fernando de Souza Campos; the book Enfermeiras do Brasil: história de pioneiras (Nurses of Brazil: history of pioneers) with Victoria Secaf as co-author; and História da Enfermagem Brasileira (The History of Brazilian Nursing), a result of the doctoral studies of Fernando Porto and Wellington Amorim, who had Tânia Cristina Santos Franco and Ieda de Alencar Barreira as their respective advisors, and was also a result of the consolidation of the Núcleo de Pesquisa em História da Enfermagem Brasileira - NUPHEBRAS/EEAN/UFRJ (Research Center for the History of Brazilian Nursing) and Laboratório de Pesquisa em História da Enfermagem - LAPHE/EEAP/UNIRO (Laboratory for the Research on the History of Nursing).

The outstanding presence of the research nurses from Federal University of Santa Catarina - UFSC deserves emphasis, more specifically the studies coordinated by Mirian Susskind Borenstein. In this sense, the SIAHE was considered a landmark for the history of nursing, under consolidation in the field of nursing research, considering the acknowledgement from nurse researchers and professionals such as historians, sociologists and anthropologists, who also participated in the event, communicating studies or delivering lectures in round tables. The presence of the latter professionals marks the importance of nursing in the context of human sciences as it assumes the position of an interdisciplinary field.

The results achieved by the event- quantitative and qualitative - permit to consider that nursing history, re-dimensioned by the culture of care, should be considered fundamental for the development of health care delivery. Acknowledging the experiences that constructed the foundations of the nursing profession, as revealed by the participation of researchers from countries of the Ibero-American world, indicates that the critical and dialectical analysis of the paths pursued by nursing is the effective means to strengthen the profession. Without memory it is impossible to maintain professional identity and to project the future and the actions that compose it.

It should be considered that the aforementioned information agrees with the experience of using quantitative and qualitative approaches to produce nursing knowledge, as reported by Odaléa Maria Bruggemann and Mary Ângela Parpinelli when they stated that the combination between the referred approaches is a research strategy to better address certain nursing phenomena to be studied⁽⁹⁾.

The interchange of knowledge regarding the history of nursing made it possible for the first edition of the Ibero-American Symposium on the History of Nursing Memory and Professional Identity, to stress the commitment with the documentation of a history that recovers the experience of men and women, illustrious or unnamed, and write the history of care in the periods before the profession was officially or unofficially established.

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

The referred event revealed the potential of historical-cultural research in Ibero-American nursing studies. In the case of Brazil, where research groups consolidated the need for historical research, developing studies and preserving documents, in print, iconographic, and imagetic, of various origins with the purpose of recovering the historical memory of nursing in its multiple temporalities.

The 1^st Ibero-American Symposium on the History of Nursing integrated different areas of interest for research in the field of history, making it possible to establish dialogues among researchers of different theoretical matrices and to create international partnerships with researchers in other continents. Especially in Latin America, it benefited the exchange of ideas, the creation of virtual discussions about themes involving the area of knowledge in the different settings of nursing practice, the representative elements or providing guidance by means of the object of care culture. In this direction, the group of researchers from Portugal, present in the SIAHE, took responsibility for holding, in 2009, the 2^nd Ibero-American Symposium on the History of Nursing in that country.

REFERENCES

• ¹
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• 9. Bruggeman OM, Parpinelli MA. Utilizando as abordagens quantitativa e qualitativa na produção do conhecimento. Rev Esc EnfermUSP. 2007;43(3):563-8.

Correspondência:

Almerinda Moreira

Rua Dr. Xavier Sigaud, 290 - Urca

CEP 22290-180 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  07 Apr 2010
• Date of issue
  Dec 2009

History

• Accepted
  01 June 2009
• Received
  18 Sept 2008