José Antonio Vera Pérez, María Teresa Roldán Chicano , María Lourdes Cantero González, Pedro Simón Cayuela Fuentes, José Luis Molino Contreras, María del Mar García López
La opinión de que el conocimiento histórico no es útil (1) equivale a la irrelevancia de las ciencias humanísticas con relación al avance de la humanidad y de la Enfermería. Este paradigma explicativo se reflejaría en la consideración académica de la asignatura Historia de la Enfermería como una asignatura �blanda� frente a otras de carácter técnico-clínico-instrumental. Lo que nos llevaría a identificar lo útil económico-técnico con el progreso, en detrimento de otras áreas de conocimiento que responden a otros criterios de utilidad (1,2,3). Consecuentemente, la consideración prestada por el alumno de Enfermería y su entorno cercano (familia, amigos, compañeros) al conocimiento histórico es un factor importante en el desarrollo de la profesión enfermera como una disciplina intelectual y, por ende, con dimensión especulativa. Nuestra hipótesis primera de investigación intenta mostrar este fenómeno sociocultural en una muestra de alumnos/as de la Diplomatura de Enfermería, matriculados en la Universidad de Murcia, determinando el grado de importancia relativa asignado por los alumnos a la asignatura Historia de la Enfermería
The opinion standing for the uselessness of historic knowledge equals to state the irrelevance of Humanistic Sciences related to the advances of Humanity and Nursing. This myth could be shown by the consideration of the subject �History of Nursing� as a �soft� subject compared with others. This would take us to identify the economical-technical usefulness with progress, to the detriment of others areas of knowledge which cover different utility criteria. Consequently, the interest shown by Nursing students and their environment (family, friends, partners) towards historic knowledge is an important matter for the professional Nursing development as an intellectual speculative discipline. Our first investigation hypothesis attempts to prove this sociocultural happening within a sample of students from first to third year of their Degree in Nursing, matriculated at the Nursing Schools of the University of Murcia. We developed a descriptive research by the use of a written questionnaire which inquired about personal data of the own students and their relatives (sex, age, grade of studies, etc�) and by an assessment of the subjects from the study program according to the importance found to their education as future nurses. It was completed during February 2003, under participating observation.