The historical roots of the nursing profession in public health in the estate of São Paulo from 1900-1980 have been identified. Nurses have effectively participated to implement a new public health program - "Programação em Saúde", having the assignment to train, coordinate, supervise/manage other nurses who lacked specialized training. The nurse's understanding of her role in the health process was limited to individual performance with emphasis on technical ability, without understanding the purpose of her actions in the overall model.
public health nursing; public health program