Modernity, health, and nursing: historical moments in Rio Grande do Norte

Abstract

The study is based on the principles of the New History. It is the result of a discovery process with a theoretical and empirical aproximation, which once articulated enabled the understanding of the modernity paradigm and its implications for health and nursing. The initial readings and investigations on the subject supported the modernity referential, considering that the effervescent modern ideas of the 19 th century had great expression among the intellectual segments and the social movements of that time. The resulting political, economical and cultural ruptures from the theological paradigm pushed the country into the transformative perspective that overcame the world. The purpose was to recapture the nursing teaching in Rio Grande do Norte and to identify the factors which influenced its tendencies through its links with the historical moments of Brasil and the State. It is a historical/documentary study that used primary and secondary sources from the various local institutions and the oral accounts of some historical actors.