The paper deals with a historical recovery of the genesis of Nursing and its development in Brazil in order to elucidate its influence in current nursing education and practice. It emphasizes the role played by the Rockfeller Foundation in the organization of public health nursing, the creation of the first school of nursing and the consolidation of nursing education and practice in hospitals. Certain public health policies were also examined, given their influence in the development of the profession. Nursing maintained a scientific and politically neutral position during the implementation of these health policies, possibly because of the non-critical makeup brought about by the adoption of the flexnerian model of teaching, in its link to Medicine.
nursing; nursing education; public health policy