Clothing and professional identity in the training of nurses in the city of Juiz de Fora

ABSTRACT Objective: To understand the meaning of the transformations that occurred in the clothing of EEHB students and their role in the construction of a professional identity of nurses in Juiz de Fora. Method: Historical and social qualitative study from 1965 to 1978. Oral and written sources were used. Oral sources were produced with the Thematic Oral History technique, with 10 collaborators. The theoretical frameworks used were the concepts of identity of Claude Dubar, and concepts of clothing and their symbolic meanings of Roland Barthes. Results: The EEHB nursing students’ uniform represented a brand, an essential symbol in the construction and consolidation of the nurse’s identity in the city of Juiz de Fora. Conclusion: The uniform was recognized as an object of identification of nurses in the city, giving them a social image of credibility for their training.