title: "To be a nurse": a professional choice and the construction of identity processes in the 1970s.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  to analyze the factors that influenced the choice for nursing made by graduates from the first class of the Undergraduate Nursing and Obstetrics Course of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte in the 1970s and to understand the senses and meanings of being a nurse when choosing this profession.
  
  
  METHODS
  a qualitative socio-historical study was performed, using oral history to collect data.
  
  
  RESULTS
  the analysis generated the following categories: "To be a nurse: a professional choice" and "The ideal of being a nurse: senses and meanings". The senses of "being a nurse" are associated with graduates' perspective of this profession and the meanings included the traditional conceptions that have historically affected it.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  professional choice was influenced by family and work expectations and the nursing course had an effect on the construction of nurses' professional identity.
authors.affiliation: Grupo de Estudos da História do Conhecimento da Enfermagem e Saúde, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, SC, Brazil.
authors.forename: Sheila Saint-Clair
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Teodosio
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Enfermagem e Pós-Graduação em Enfermagem, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, SC, Brazil.
authors.forename: Maria Itayra
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Padilha
mesh_terms: D001938:Brazil; D002321:Career Choice; D006676:History of Nursing; D049673:History, 20th Century; D009729:Nursing; D012933:Social Identification