Work, miseries and rewards: Social workers, nurses and midwives in the construction of Chilean health policy in the mid-twentieth century

The article seeks to show the contribution made by social workers, nurses and midwives to the successful public health policy implemented in the mid-twentieth century in Chile by the National Health Service in the context of a statist and welfare development model. Documentary sources of different types and testimonies of social workers, nurses and midwives who were interviewed for this research were used. These professionals, mainly responsible for operational tasks and in close contact with the users of the National Health Service, were responsible for the establishment of a true health pedagogy that changed the epidemiological pattern and touched the culture of the Chilean population, influencing its estimation of self-care and prevention. As executors of the policy, they avoided the difficulties inherent to the bureaucratized work of social programs, gaining, at the same time, satisfaction at the affective and altruistic level, which made them feel like the protagonists of a historical process.