Objectives: to analyze the scientific productions about the history of graduate studies in Brazilian nursing in the light of Eliot Freidson's Sociology of the Professions.
Methods: an integrative review, carried out in the databases indexed in Virtual Health Library. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses recommendations were followed.
Objectives: to know the professional trajectory of the black nurse Maria Barbosa Fernandes and to analyze elements of her professional practice based on the cultural competence model of CampinhaBacote.
Methods: historical-social study with an analysis of the findings in light of the Cultural Competence model.
Results: Maria Barbosa was the first black woman to earn a nursing degree at the Escola de Enfermagem Carlos Chagas (Carlos Chagas Nursing School) (1935-1938), and the documentation about her history allowed us to infer the experience of discrimination and invisibility.