The first part of this article was published in the last number of this magazine.

One of the most influential aspects of everyday life in healthcare centres is professional culture. Professional culture is understood to be the set of beliefs, values, norms and shared habits that make up the interpretative framework, in the light of which the practice of professional healthcare acquires meaning and significance. It is within this same framework that the professional identity of nurses and that of the healthcare centres is configured, defining the relationships among nurses. That system of believes and habits is elaborated collectively by the groups of nurses that for years have been facing the same type of realities, difficulties and situations. It is important to emphasise that the interpretation nurses do of the different situations of care and the reasons that they present to defend a change in the practice or to oppose to it, are strongly influenced by the professional culture in which these nurses have socialised. Any professional culture (same as in other cultures, in an anthropological sense) has two dimensions: contents and form. The first refers to the beliefs, values, habits and ways to do things that are shared by a particular group of nurses. The latter refers to the guidelines or association models among the members of such culture, manifesting itself in the ways nurses interact. The important thing here is to become aware of the fact that the cultural contents are elaborated, reproduced or redefined through the different forms.