Admission of men in nursing undergraduation in Brazil: Uniform and Professional Identity

Objective: This study aims to analyse the role of the uniform in the process of transforming the professional identity of nursing after the entry of men into the Anna Nery School of Nursing. Theoretical reference and method: Historical-social, qualitative study. Using written, photographic and oral sources (thematic oral history technique), with twenty informants. As a theoretical reference, the concepts of identity of Claude Dubar and Roland Barthes related to costumes and symbolic meanings were used. Results: The first school to implement Modern Nursing in Brazil was Anna Nery, led by the Rockefeller Foundation. Changes in the selection of undergraduate nurses (1960) led to a break with the social and pedagogical model of the School, which trained exclusively women. The entry of men, in the 1971 promotion, altered the construction process in relation to professional identity, which meant uniforms and rituals for their use, a strategy of hierarchical and disciplinary control. Conclusions: The uniforms lost their symbolic force as a distinctive element of the students of this institution in society. At the same time, they maintained their function of identifying a group and influencing the construction of the professional identity of nurses.