Esta reflexion propone caracterizar el paradigama positivista a partir del cual se han generado las teorias biologicas de las ciencias de la salud, hacer una critica de los obstaculos epistemologicos que han impedido la construccion de una teoria social del proceso salud-enfermedad y presentar las propuestas no positivistas surgidas de las ciencias sociales y humanas para el desarrollo de esta teoria.ABSTRACTThe main topic in this prsentation is that humanism is part of the theoretical and scientific development of the nursing profession. To support this, I begin my exposition with an analysis of the thinking on nursing as opposed to medical thinking. Then I present a series of significant facts that have influenced the development of nursing, followed by a study of the different sorts of interrelations between discipline and profession, and their application in nursing. Subsequently, I analyze the implications of this new thinking on nursing to finally include some reflections as conclusions.