A dialectical view of curriculum changes in nursing training

To understand the contradictions involved in the process of curriculum reconstruction in the training of nurses, on the professors' perception. Qualitative interpretative study, in which professors of nursing courses from three public and three private institutions were interviewed. The analysis was based on dialectical hermeneutics. 21 professors participated in the study. The proposals of changes are associated with advances and resistances, since the extended view of the health-disease process is opposed to the biological view; the diversification of learning scenarios is confronted with the hegemony of the hospital scenario; the integration of teaching and service faces the inequality of participation of the parties; and integration between the basic and the clinical cycle finds resistance in the knowledge accumulated in each discipline. The contradictions found, although inherent to the change process, indicate that persistence and continuous movement towards curriculum reformulation are necessary.