In 1945, the Saint Joseph School for nursing assistants, the first in Brazil, was established. It was created without the knowledge or consent of the Brazilian Association of Nursing, which did not accept the “higher standard" in the process of professionalization of nursing. As a training center, the school had a 40-bed infirmary in the Santa Casa Hospital in São Paulo. In the beginning, there were difficulties with the doctors, but gradually they began to recognize the differences in the new nursing. The Provincial at that time, Mother Jacinta da Silva, tried in vain to have the course approved at the Ministry of Education, for students to have an official record of certification. Without approval, the school was closed from October 1948 to 1950.

At that time, the Santa Casa Hospital in Campinas, with support from Sister Jacinta, was preparing to found a school of nursing. Claiming to have more right to a nursing school, the Santa Casa Hospital of Sao Paulo campaigned against the Campinas proposal. Achieving nothing, they asked Mother Jacinta for their own nursing school. Mother Jacinta replied that, “If they approved the course for nursing assistants, we would reopen the school”.

The Santa Casa de São Paulo had great power, and its administration had great influence in the Ministry and in the Government through Freemason associations. With its intervention and within a few months, the course for nursing assistants was approved by the Ministry of Education, without the knowledge and consent of the Brazilian Association of Nursing and the University of São Paulo. It then resumed its work.

Sister Rosa Guedes
Province of São Paulo/Brazil