It is a critical reflection about the care and the cure, in a historical perspective. The scientific rationality in nursing engendered in the movement of transformation of the hospital as a therapeutic space and the development of medical knowledge and technology. The institucionalization of nursing occurred in two perspectives: moral and technical. The configuration of the "professional crisis" is pointed out in relation to formation, labour market, practice, organization and research in its dynamic articulations in the society. Actually, the maintenance and prolongation of the life has been emphasized to projects directed of better quality of the care and the life, in personal and professional terms.