An anonymous pre-stamped questionnaire was sent by mail in July 2004. By December, 2.122 filled questionnaires were recorded, a 7.8% reply rate. The dada was analyzed using SPSS 12.0.

The nursing collective in Barcelona is mainly female, with an average age of 38.3 years. Less than 20% of the nurses have pursued postgraduate degrees, but the majority follows training courses regularly (77%). They consider themselves as specialist in their professional area. As regards to the activity developed, 83% of the nurses are aid nurses, 7% management responsible and 2% teachers. Half of the collective works in hospitals, 7% in geriatrics and the rest in community health services.  A large number would like to achieve higher positions in their career. Nowadays, the difficulties for nurses at their workplaces are two-fold: the increasing multicultural population with little knowledge of the Spanish/Catalan language and the changing social environment. Nurses would like to provide counseling and mentoring support to the population. They consider themselves fairly autonomous in their decision making and practice, but most of them would like be more independent. In general, nurses are satisfied with their job; however they believe that the nursing profession should increase its reputation in society.

This study has contributed to better understand the practice and the needs of nursing professionals. In addition, it has increased the knowledge on how to professionalize the nursing discipline, offering a clear overview of current strengths and weaknesses.

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