[From practitioner to health technical aid. 1857-1953]

In this article the author analyzes twenty documents related to the Nursing Profession which were published in the publication "Gaceta de Madrid" and the "BOE", Official Register of State Documents, between the year 1857, when the degree of Hospital Intern/Practitioner was created, and 1953, when the courses of Hospital Intern/Practitioner, Midwife and Nurse were unified under one combined course of studies: Technical Sanitary Assistant. "ATS". Many changes have occurred over these 96 years; the following deserve to be highlighted: the progressive increase in the demands and the duration of course studies for Hospital Intern/Practitioner, Midwife and Nurse, as well as the number of functions granted to these professionals. However, over this time period certain connotations which converted this profession into one considered auxiliary and sub-alternate to Medicine, strongly influenced by the sex of its members, were maintained.