CELEBRATION OF THE NURSING GOLD JUBILEE AT THE UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DE SANTA CATARINA

This is an editorial that intends to rescue a remarkable fact: a Celebration of the Nursing Gold Jubilee at the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC). I am honored with the invitation to attend this celebration. My heart overflows with gratitude for the opportunity to revive in my memory the ideals, values, challenges and achievements that have allowed my personal and professional growth to join those characters who, enthusiastically, gave their best so that the society of Santa Catarina could achieve the right to have better quality health services.

More than fifty years have passed since a group of nurses and doctors, members of the Edith Gama Ramos Children's Hospital - a pioneering hospital in Santa Catarina in the constitution of a nursing service organized according to the modern standards and concepts of the hospital administration - impulsed by strong intention to offer to the State of Santa Catarina the possibility of offering better professional services, joined and designed, together with their respective professional associations, strategies for the creation of a Nursing graduation course at the UFSC.

At that time, the population growth and the socio-sanitary and health condition demanded concrete actions for the formation of nurses. The situation in health services in Santa Catarina was precarious; for the general public, anyone who, even without prior preparation, performed patient care was called a nurse. Until 1962, the number of nurses with higher education in Brazil was 6,756 and nursing auxiliaries were 7,315. In Santa Catarina there were only 26 nurses; 18 were religious and 8 were lay, four of them were inactive. The initiative of the creation of the Brazilian Nursing Association - Santa Catarina Section (ABEn-SC) on March 13, 1962, led by Sister Cacilda Hammes, with the active participation of Ursula Engel and Flérida Cardoso, was an example of shared leadership and efficient political action, based on the vision of offering society a better quality of health care. ABEn-SC worked as a family that cultivated perennial values such as warmth, dignity, respect, courage, loyalty, solidarity, companionship, commitment and love of the profession. And it was through the effort of Sister Cacilda Hammes to the physician Fernando Oswaldo de Oliveira, then Secretary of Health of the State of Santa Catarina, that the Nurse was reclassified as a university professional. This initiative made it possible to hire the five nurses who started the activities at the Edith Gama Ramos Children's Hospital, some of whom were subsequently hired as teachers at the UFSC Nursing Course.1

The first action, among the strategies advocated by the group aiming at the creation of the College of Nursing at UFSC, happened in 1965, when ABEn-SC, represented by its President Maria Marlene Bernardes Medeiros, elaborated an explanatory statement justifying the need for training of nurses to face the health demands of society, which was sent to the Magnificent Rector João David Ferreira Lima. At the same time, Professor Glete de Alcântara, President of ABEn-Nacional, was asked to collaborate to find an experienced person who wanted to take on the role of Director. Professor Zaira Bittencourt, retired from the University of São Paulo (USP), who came to Florianópolis, was indicated, but this did not materialize.

In 1966, ABEn-SC, then presided by me, continued its actions. This time, strategically, there was a meeting with the physician Professor Polydoro Ernani de São Thiago, who served as Rector in office and already envisioned the creation of the University Hospital and knew that it would require skilled human resources to take on such a venture. So, enthusiastically, he welcomed the idea and designated through Ordinance No. 364, dated November 7, 1966, a commission to carry out the necessary studies for the deployment of the College of Nursing at UFSC. This commission was presided by Professor Roberto Mundel Lacerda (Vice-Rector), the secretary was Aloisio Blasi, MD (Secretary General of UFSC) and integrated by Professor Henrique Manoel Prisco Paraiso (President of the Catarinense Association of Medicine) and by me (President of ABEn-SC).

With the intention of strengthening the participation of all the leaders of Nursing institutions working in Florianopolis, ABEn-SC constituted a Special Committee to elaborate a Memorial containing the minimum standards for the College of Nursing. Presided over by me and representing the Edith Gama Ramos Children's Hospital, Sister Áurea Schmitz (Director of the School of Nursing Assistants) and Sister Agnes Erdtmann (Nursing Director of Governador Celso Ramos Hospital) were part of this committee. The final report of this Committee was completed in November 1967 and delivered to Professor Roberto Mundel Lacerda, the Committee's President who studied the deployment of the College of Nursing.

Then again there was the attempt to bring another teacher to take over the direction. This time, Professor Roberto Mundel Lacerda, Rector in office, Professor Zélia Barbosa Machado from USP-Ribeirão Preto, who declined the invitation, said: “A young university needs a young director and the Magnificent Rector has the person with that profile very close to him”. I was waiting in the Chief of Staff's room and was invited in. There was not really an invitation, but a call. I was already too involved in achieving this purpose. And it was there, in the office of the Rector, located in Chácara da Rua Bocaiúva, 1858, now headquarters of the 14th. Motorized Infantry Brigade Silva Paesque, that I was surprised by the invitation and with tears answered that I was very young and did not feel prepared to occupy such a position. The Magnificent Rector asked: “What do you need?”. And I, assertively, expressed the priority needs, such as: visiting the best Nursing Schools in the country and in Latin America; having a place to work together with a secretary and to complete my work commitment at Edith Gama Ramos Children's Hospital. Surprisingly, everything was solved right there at that moment, and I was immediately hired and allocated in two rooms of the Central Library that worked in one of the wooden houses, next to the building of the Rectory; a room for coordination and one for the secretariat. Immediately, Secretary Tânia Maria Gomes do Amaral was hired and the official Mr. Vilson Hipólito da Costa, who relentlessly collaborated on all that was needed during that period of implementation.

The proximity to the various sectors of university administration, which functioned in the Rectory's premises, facilitated the integration and warm welcome of Nursing to the university environment. The orientation received from Professor Roberto Mundel Lacerda and Professor João Mackowieck, then Director of the College of Economic Sciences, was indispensable and invaluable for the elaboration of the process for the authorization of the operation of the College of Nursing at UFSC, which was submitted to the Federal Council and received a favorable opinion in December 1968.

Thus, on January 24, 1969, through Resolution 02/69, signed by the Magnificent Rector João David Ferreira Lima, the Undergraduate Nursing Course of UFSC was created, attached to the College of Medicine, but with a wide autonomy. This was because the University Reform Commission (CIRU) - which I was part of together with representatives of medicine, pharmacy and dentistry - was already studying a new teaching structure made up of Centers and Departments, with the Colleges being extinct and maintained only the denomination of courses. In the first class of the Undergraduate Nursing Course, after passing a specific exam, 24 students (20 women and 4 men) were admitted. The inaugural lecture was given on March 21, 1969 by USP Professor, Amália Corrêa de Carvalho, MD, then President of ABEn-Nacional. The solemnity was presided by the Rector Roberto Mundel Lacerda, with the participation of Professor Ayrton Roberto de Oliveira - Director of the College of Medicine, Professor Antônio Moniz de Aragão - representative of the Congregation of that College, Professor Henrique Mundl. Prisco Paraiso - President of the Catarinense Association of Medicine and by me, as Coordinator of the Undergraduate Nursing Course.

It is with great emotion that I recall and revisit, in my memory, the successful steps and strategies that resulted in the creation of the Undergraduate Nursing Course at UFSC. It is interesting to note that the sociocultural context of the time was extremely favorable, manifested especially by the interdisciplinary cooperation and respect for the actions of each professional, resulting in harmony in the relationships, which was essential for the accomplishment of the mission that we proposed. On the other hand, it is important to record the efforts of the historian nurses to leave, as a legacy for future generations, the numerous publications that address the contributions of ABEn-SC and the UFSC Nursing in the construction of their immemorial trajectories.2 - 4

And, it is only fair that in the occasion of the celebration of the Nursing Gold Jubilee at UFSC, commemorative activities should be developed to recover their contribution to teaching, research and extension, which certainly continues to be offered at the national and international level, both in terms process and the production and use of knowledge.

I cannot fail to express my joy and fulfillment in contemplating recent data provided to me by the current coordinators of the undergraduate nursing courses, Professor Jeferson Rodrigues, and Postgraduate Courses, Professor Jussara Gue Martini, which attest to productivity in these 50 years. In undergraduate education, 2,325 nurses were trained; in the postgraduate nursing education 966 Specialists, 752 Masters, 366 Doctors, 46 Post-Doctors were trained.

Likewise, it is imperative to recognize the participation of Nursing in numerous extension projects, as well as the contribution of Text & Context Nursing Journal, which since its creation in 1992 until December 2018 published 2,498 articles in 27 volumes and 103 issues, out of which 92 regular and 11 specials, having wide circulation in Brazil and abroad, with articles published in Portuguese, English and Spanish, and indexed in the main international platforms of dissemination of knowledge.5

What has been presented here reveals the struggles and achievements of a group of capable and dedicated professionals who welcomed in their hearts the mission of planting the seed in a wonderful garden, watering it with the nutrients and the necessary care so that it was born a beautiful tree that was little by little offering tasty fruits and which is expected to continue leafy and productive, to continue the mission of bringing shelter, protection, care and comfort to all who approach it.

References

• 1. Neves EP. A Associação Brasileira de Enfermagem- Seção Santa Catarina e a repercussão na criação do Curso de Graduação em Enfermagem na UFSC. In: Zago AT, editor. Contribuições da ABEn-SC para a enfermagem catarinense. Florianópolis (SC): Associação Brasileira de Enfermagem-Seção Santa Catarina; 2010. p. 21-46.
• 2. Scarduelli P, Souza ML, Prado ML, Borenstein MS, Bernardes PPD. A Enfermagem da Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina: uma história em movimento. Florianópolis (SC): Insular; 1997.
• 3. Borenstein MS, Althoff CR, Souza ML. Enfermagem da UFSC: recortes de caminhos construídos e memórias 1969/1999. Florianópolis (SC): Insular; 1999.
• 4. Kirchhof ALC, Zago AT, Paim L, editors. A trajetória da Associação Brasileira de Enfermagem - Seção Santa Catarina: rememorações Cinquentenárias (1962-2012). Florianópolis (SC): Associação Brasileira de Enfermagem-Seção Santa Catarina; 2013. p.174-91.
• 5. Andrade SR, Padilha MI. História e desafios do periódico Texto & Contexto Enfermagem. In: BlogRev@Enf. 2019 Mar 21 [cited 2019 Mar 25]. Available from: Available from: https://blog.revenf.org/2019/03/21/historia-e-desafios-do-periodico-texto-contexto-enfermagem/
  » https://blog.revenf.org/2019/03/21/historia-e-desafios-do-periodico-texto-contexto-enfermagem/

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  15 Apr 2019
• Date of issue
  2019