The training of health non-commissioned officers in the process of modernization, bureaucratization and professionalization of the Argentine Army (1902-1935)

Abstract

The sanction of the Organic Law of the Army and Navy Health Corps in 1888 marks the beginning of the process of shaping the modern military health service in Argentina. As part of this process, the medical officers, pharmacists and dentists of the Army began to receive their complementary training of the university at the School of Application of Military Health created 1898 –named since 1910 as The School of Application of Military Medicine-; while non-commissioned officers –stretchers bearer, nurses, dental mechanics, pharmacy preparers and biochemical laboratory– had their specific training since 1902 at the Stretcher Bearer Company, since 1904 at the School of Nurses, since 1909 at the School of Nurses and Stretchers Bearer and since 1935 at the School of Non-commissioned of Health. These Schools, however, faced difficulties in continuing their institutional projects. In recent years, the historiography of health and illness have produced renewed knowledge about the history of nursing in the process of professionalization of public health. However, so far nurses and other military health care assistants have not been the subject of specific research. This article aims at the study of the training of health non-commissioned officers in the context of the process of modernization, bureaucratization and professionalization of the Army in the first decades of the twentieth century. To this end, I will use a qualitative methodology for the analysis of articles and institutional information published in the Army's health journals between 1899 and 1938: Anales de Sanidad Militar, Boletín de Sanidad Militar and Revista de la Sanidad Militar.