The author analyzes twenty official publications related to Nursing which, as Orders, Decrees, Royal Decree and Law, have been dictated over the time period stretching from 1953 to 2002 and which have been published in the "BOE", Official Register of State Documents. There are many changes which the Nursing Profession has undergone during these 49 years, of which the following deserve to be highlighted: the progressive increase in the educational demands for nurses, the start of specialties, the disappearance of differences associated to students' sex, the inclusion of Nursing studies at University level, and the focus, increasing all the time, of courses oriented directly towards knowledge specifically related to the Nursing Profession itself.