Indicators for changing nursing graduation curriculum: professional's expectations and graduates' evalutation of curriculum

Abstract

Two kinds of evidence were used to guide curriculum changes in the Nursing School of Ribeirão Preto (University of São Paulo): J) a survey of nurses' expectations on their profession, their functions, the other members of the team and on the Nursing School teachers; 2) graduates' (ex-students) curriculum evaluation. We inquired 115 nurses working in 5 general hospitals of Ribeirão Preto, and had a return of 49 questionaries (42,6%). This questionary was delivered by the authors personally to the nurses, along with guidances on answering and date for return, and had 9 opened questions. The classification of answers makes possible to assert: the assistance function is the most emphasized by nurses; the student's expectations change during the professional practice; 60% of the informants considered the content of the curriculum disciplines adequate; 69,4% considered the habilitations dispensable.