This report belongs to the research line "The professional practice and identity building of the Brazilian Nurse", developed by a group registered at the CNPq and Research Center of History of Brazilian Nursing (Nuphebras) of the School of Nursing Anna Nery, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. The objectives of this study are: correlate the institutional changes of Nursing in the Brazilian society of that time to the accentuated political and economical transition of the country; analyze the effects of those institutional changes in the nurse's labor market and in the characteristics of nursing practice; discuss the new articulation forms of nursing with other social practices inside the area of health. National public health nursing, in order to accompany the enlargement of the bureaucratic State, expanded and modified. At the same time, in a context of a protectionist policy to the worker, an incentive policy to the opening of new, public and private hospitals, was developed, although Nursing services of those institutions were not organized according to the patterns that characterized the modern Nursing. Thus, the practice of Nursing in the 30's is characterized as the beginning of the transition of a model of urban public health to a model of hospital assistance.
history of nursin; public health nursing; health Policy