Religion and spirituality in education and nursing assistance

Intersectional study between nursing discourse and precepts which embrace religion/religiousness and spirituality, and how these were incorporated and their reflection upon nursing practice, education and the history of the organization of the profession. For bibliographic review LILACS and BDENF databases of the Electronic Health Library were used. A total of 57 full-text articles, published from 1957 to 2007, were analyzed upon the light of the ideas of Maurice Halbwachs, about "collective memory". The results show that Brazilian nursing has a religious root with profound ramifications on its development. This configuration is so embedded in the collective memory that, even with the expansion of non-religious institutions, the Christian precepts remain present and strong.