Historia cultural de enfermería: reflexión epistemológica y metodológica

this paper is intended to reflect over the cultural and historical nature of care and endorses the importance of history in the epistemological development of nursing as a discipline, with a view to explain the historical-anthropological approaches and methods as the most suitable ones for discussing and analyzing care actions in its entire complexity. driving ideas: health care is influenced by self-defining historical-cultural factors; moreover, the historical, epistemological and anthropological studies of care contribute to know in depth and globally about the phenomena involved in health care. at methodological level, the epistemological reflection about the historical-cultural nature of care was applied, as well as the analysis of the competence of historical paradigms, models and methods according to their potential holistic vision. conclusions: the historical-anthropological approaches and methods are the most relevant to study care actions from a holistic perspective.