Objective:

The general purpose of this study has been to analyze the performance of nursing during the period of the Spanish civil war. In order to carry it out, three general objectives were established; know who they were, describe their daily work and reflect on the consequences that participation in the war had for them.

Methods:

In an attempt to give the protagonists a voice, a review of their diaries, autobiographical memoirs and interviews is carried out, which provide very valuable information, first-hand, about the lived experience. The historical method has been used with the help of qualitative techniques such as documentary observation. The result has been a historical, descriptive and analytical-synthetic study.

Results:

The women had to work in inhospitable places such as closed tunnels, a cave near the Ebro, a ruined farmhouse, etc. The resources available to them were scarce, especially at the end of the war, which made their daily work even more difficult. They had to face bombs, lice, typhus, dysentery, hunger, etc.

Conclusions:

The extreme conditions they experienced endowed the nursing staff with greater autonomy and independence.