A História do Ensino de Enfermagem em Portugal

Abstract

History tells us that care for the sick person is as old as humanity itself and was practiced by people without specific training for this. At the end of the 19th century, they were considered an activity with social impact and the need for providers of such care to have knowledge of hygiene principles was recognized.

In Portugal, as well as in other European countries, the first courses in which practical instruction were provided appeared in hospitals, in large cities. Only later, in 1901, at Hospital de S. José, was the first Nursing School created, although it is said that the first school dates back to 1881, but this is an unconfirmed fact. In 1920, the properly structured Nursing Course was created. In 1940 the Technical School of Nurses of the Portuguese Institute of Oncology was created in Lisbon and in 1952 legislation was passed to organize nursing education in official schools.

Still with the process of revision of the 1965 reform in progress, the revolution of April 25, 1974 took place and a new reform process began, developing a remarkable work of changing the curricular organization of the nursing course. In 1988, nursing education is integrated into the National Educational System, at the Polytechnic Higher Education level, under the dual supervision of the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health. nurses holding a specialty who had qualifications to access higher education or an adequate curriculum. In 1991, the Master in Nursing was created at the Catholic University and in 1993, the Master in Nursing Science at the Abel Salazar Institute of Biomedical Sciences. In 1999 the Ministry of Education approved the creation of Nursing Licentiate and Post-License Specialization Courses in Nursing. In 2001, at the Institute of Biomedical Sciences Abel Salazar, the doctorate in Nursing Science began to function.

Since our objective is to deepen the knowledge, through bibliographical analysis, about the evolution of Nursing education in Portugal, we sought to reflect on how over the years the training path in nursing has been built and what are the most relevant contributions to the success of same.

Keywords Nursing education; Historical route; Portugal