Nursing construction image is permeated by historical, socioeconomic and cultural aspects. This theme aims to understand the perception of nurses regarding the visibility of nursing staff's daily work. This qualitative research is exploratory, with 30 nurses at a university hospital in southern Brazil. The data was collected from July to October 2012, through semi-structured interviews and submitted for a discursive textual analysis. The results show that nursing visibility is related to a professional historical trajectory, to an absence of recognition of the scientific aspect of Nursing, to erroneous placement in the media, to improper behavior towards the staff and also to work overload. Thus, the demystification of nursing's image includes greater media visibility, conducting personnel marketing, appropriate behavior in front of health staff and professional demonstrations of autonomy, challenges that must be overcome by nursing.
Nursing; History of nursing; Self Concept