História da profissionalização das enfermeiras neonatologistas em Belo Horizonte (1981 – 2001)

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: The professionalization of neonatal nurses in Brazil was shaped by historical gaps in newborn care, the absence of specific public policies, and the undervaluation of women’s work. In Belo Horizonte, between 1981 and 2001, this phenomenon unfolded amid significant sanitary and institutional transformations driven by high neonatal mortality rates and the expansion of the Unified Health System (SUS). OBJECT OF STUDY: the professionalization of neonatal nurses in Belo Horizonte (1981–2001). OBJECTIVES: to historicize the social and sanitary context of care for high-risk newborns in Belo Horizonte between 1981 and 2001; to characterize the establishment of the first Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in Belo Horizonte; to identify the pioneering neonatal nurses in the city; to describe the advances and challenges experienced by the first neonatal nurses certified through the specialization course in hospital nursing during this period; and to analyze the elements that configured a professional field in neonatology for the practice of nurses in Belo Horizonte. ASSUMPTION: the demands of neonatology presented nurses with the challenge of constructing their own specific body of knowledge, giving rise to an important vanguard movement in the development of neonatology in the state and in Brazil. This process contributed to the early steps in the professionalization of neonatal nurses in Belo Horizonte, aligned with the needs of the labor market and State regulation. JUSTIFICATION: this is the first investment by the state of Minas Gerais dedicated to producing knowledge on the professionalization of neonatal nurses. By reconstructing a trajectory not yet recorded in the historiography of nursing in Minas Gerais, the study helps to fill a scientific gap and strengthens the professional identity of nurses working with high-risk newborns. Its results may support academic training, inform public policies, and encourage further studies on innovation and scientific development in nursing. METHOD: historical-social, situated within the domain of the history of nursing, with a qualitative approach. Oral and textual history methodologies were used, based on interviews with 13 participants and analysis of institutional documents. The findings were interpreted through Eliot Freidson’s Sociology of Professions, shaping the historical narrative. RESULTS: the creation of the first Pediatric Intensive Care Center in Belo Horizonte provided space for nurses to operate in a highly complex context, where empirical practices were transformed into knowledge. The pioneering nurses acted as silent protagonists of change, converting the absence of policies and the precariousness of services into a field of training and innovation. The establishment of the specialization course in hospital nursing institutionalized this knowledge and marked the formal credentialing of neonatology as a field of practice, shaping professional autonomy and authority. CONCLUSION: the professionalization of neonatal nurses in Belo Horizonte resulted from a process of constructing expertise, credentialism, and autonomy. The reconstructed trajectory reveals that neonatology anticipated goals now expressed in the Sustainable Development Goals by promoting specialized care, qualified training, female leadership, and interinstitutional partnerships. Recovering this history is a political act, as it restores to nurses authorship over their practices, knowledge, and their own history.