School of Nursing of Santa Maria

The ESSSM, owned by the Portuguese Province of the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady, was created in 2016 and inherited the physical and formative patrimony of the Nursing School of Santa Maria, resulting from the evolution of nursing teaching activity started in 1949 at the Hospital de Santa Maria (Porto) to respond to the need to improve the almost exclusively practical training provided to nurse sisters who cared for the sick and needy, although without professional recognition. Academic institutionalization happened only in 1952, when the congregation obtained governmental authorization to open the Nursing School of the Franciscan Sisters of Calais, as it was then called the congregation, to teach Nursing Assistant, open only to But not exclusively from the community. With a considerable increase in demand, the Province decided to build its own school building, located in the annexes of the Hospital of Santa Maria, which opened in 1960. This new building determined the School's autonomy in relation to the Hospital and saw its facilities Progressively increased during the years 1962-1963 and 1968-1969. In 1965, as a consequence of the change of the designation of the Province, the School of Nursing adopted the name of Nursing School of the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady. In 1991, the School was renamed Nursing School of Santa Maria and began the first course of Nursing Bachelor's Degree. In 2000, the undergraduate degree began in nursing and later postgraduate degrees and postgraduate degrees also in nursing.