[Why are we the way we are? Discourses and power relations in nurses' professional identity in Spain (1956-1976)].

OBJECTIVE

To explore the continuities, transformations and ruptures in the discourses building the social identity of nurses in Spain between 1956 and 1976.

METHOD

From a poststructuralist and postfeminist perspective, we carried out a genealogical discourse analysis of the manuals of professional morals used during the training of nurses.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Analysis of the manuals revealed that the professional identity of nurses was constituted by a discoursive matrix and power relations, in which a residual Christian moral discourse and other dominant gender, technical and biomedical discourses can be identified.

CONCLUSIONS

These discourses fundamentally highlight power relations of a disciplinary and pastoral nature. Some of these discourses have brought about a symbolic matrix which remains in the foundations of professional practice, health policies, social image, etc. The hegemony of these discourses for 20 years and the observation of current reality allow us to infer that nurses in Spain have managed to transform and break many of these elements and to propose other ways of viewing the profession.