title: Spanish nurses' credentialing in the 20th century.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Nurses credentialing as healthcare professionals commenced in Western Europe and in the USA by the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, boosted by the protestant reform movement. In Spain, it started in 1915, during the kingdom of Alfonso XIII (1902-1931). This historical period was marked by great political instability and big flaws in the healthcare delivery system.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To describe the regulatory pathway that gave rise to the nursing profession in Spain, through official credentialing and regulation during the first third of the 20th century.
  
  
  METHODS
  Documental, historical and regulatory documental research describing and analysing the national legislative sources used to regulate the professional development, as well as the education, training and competencies of the nursing practice in Spain, as compared with the developments in the European and American context.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Professional development of the nursing profession in Western Europe and in the USA is consolidated during the 20th century as resulting in educational and training enhancement and the establishment of national and international professional bodies. In Spain, the regulatory and legal recognition of the nursing profession come into being in 1915 in response to a request from a female religious congregation.
authors.affiliation: Nursing School of Murcia University, Murcia, Spain.
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Hernández Conesa
authors.forename: P S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Cayuela Fuentes
authors.forename: J V
authors.initials: JV
authors.lastname: Beneit Montesinos
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: González Jurado
mesh_terms: D002410:Catholicism / Q000266:history; D003406:Credentialing / Q000266:history*; D005260:Female; D006676:History of Nursing; D049669:History, 16th Century; D049670:History, 17th Century; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D012922:Social Change; D012926:Social Control, Formal; D013030:Spain