Hist Cienc Saude Manguinhos. 2001 Sep-Dec; 8(3): 507-39.

[Public health facilities, international modernization and cooperation. Venezuela's National Nursing School Project, 1936-1950]

Vessuri HM.

Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones CientÃficas, Departmento Estudio de la Ciencia, Caracas, Venezuela. hvessuri@ivic.ve

In the end of the 19th century, the Venezuelan public health system was in the hands of religious women who ran the public health facilities. A new educational model would produce professional nurses who came to raise the standards of their occupation. Undoubtedly, this objective could not be properly met due to the candidates' low educational level and the need of a health service that searched for more economical means to face its demands with trained personnel but without real educational improvements. Another hindrance was the resistance of traditional medicine, which prevented a view of health as a whole, which comprehends social and preventive aspects. It was rather difficult for the founders of nursing schools to make public health facilities develop health orientation.