Compiling a socio-history of the nursing professional group by looking at the training of nurses and senior nurses

This article retraces some of the dynamics of the nursing occupational group since its advent at the end of the nineteenth century in France. The guiding thread we will follow is the evolution of the institutional education of nurses and senior nurses. Adopting a socio-historical approach will enable us to understand this intricate process. It takes the form of struggles between different and even opposing views of “the modern nurse.” Each view puts forward its own education and socialization model. The constitution of a new segment - that of senior nurses - was a first step toward the group’s self-governance. Over time, the professional group would strategically adhere to and combine many kinds of ideologies (such as the humanist aspects of care, the biomedical vision of a nurse’s work, or managerial guidelines). Our work is based on a PhD thesis defended in 2018 and on various surveys conducted within both training institutions and hospitals.