The nurses' working process: the view of professors from a public university

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to understand the working process of the nurse according to the perspective of professors of the Undergraduate Nursing Course at Universidade Federal de São Paulo. METHODS: Exploratory study with a qualitative approach, having 14 professors as its subjects; the focus group technique was chosen for data collection, and the material was analyzed according to the method of content analysis. RESULTS: The meaning of the nurses' working process comprised three categories: composition of the nurses' working process, differentials of the nurses' work when compared to other healthcare professionals and dichotomies of the nurses' working process in education. CONCLUSION: The meanings of this process were the group of the working processes: caring, managing, teaching and researching, whose working core is the process of caring. However, healthcare management was not evidenced by the focus group. The nurses' working process was considered complex and confusing.