OBJECTIVE: to identify values which structure and guide nursing as social practice. METHOD: qualitative meta-synthesis. RESULTS: three concepts were identified: The tension between technique, organization and ethics in the nurse's practice; Historical carry-overs of the values which run through nursing practice; Attention to ethics, to reform of the health system, and to the humanization of care. These led to the synthesis of the principal variables 'planning' and 'care', which represent, respectively, guiding values of the technical-operative and ethical-moral elements of the social practice of nursing. CONCLUSION: these values are articulated through the prism of ordering so as to care well. Their recognition contributed to a better understanding of the process of health care and nursing care.

OBJECTIVE: This study analyzed the increase in the number of undergraduate nursing courses during the last two decades due to the expansion of higher education in Brazil. METHOD: A records-based research concerning the legal frameworks that have driven this movement and a quantitative research that described the increase in the number of professional nursing courses. Data were analyzed using thematic content analysis (qualitative) and descriptive statistics (quantitative). RESULTS: the political-ideological argument present in the regulatory documents, which points out higher education as a possibility to change the current social scenario, has not been reflected in the professional nursing field. The expansion of nursing courses has been unfolding in a disorderly manner and is concentrated in the private sector, with geographical inequality in the distribution of these courses. CONCLUSION: There does not seem to be a concern with the local needs and with a connection among education, research and extension, which compromises the quality of the education provided to future nurses.

OBJECTIVE: to identify factors which constrain or determine the return to sexual activity in the puerperium. METHOD: exploratory and descriptive study undertaken in a university hospital in the South of Brazil. Fifteen women who had recently given birth, who received a consultation with the nurse in the period August - October 2011, took part in the study. Data was collected after the consultation had finished through semi-structured interviews, in which the women who had recently given birth were asked about the return to sexual activity and the feelings involved in this process. RESULTS: the principal determinant/constraint for return to sexual activity in the post-natal period was the fear of a new pregnancy. Fear of feeling pain, permission from the health professional, shame of their own bodies and changes in libido emerged as constraining and/or determinant factors in the thematic analysis. CONCLUSION: it is considered fundamental for the issue of contraception to be addressed with the woman/couple during the pre-natal consultation, so that there may be opportunities for reflection and dialog prior to the critical time itself.

OBJECTIVE: To describe and analyze the teaching of the Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) strategy on Brazilian undergraduate nursing programs. METHOD: Integrating an international multicentric study, a cross-sectional online survey was conducted between May and October 2010 with 571 undergraduate nursing programs in Brazil RESULTS: Responses were received from 142 programs, 75% private and 25% public. 64% of them included the IMCI strategy in the theoretical content, and 50% of the programs included IMCI as part of the students' practical experience. The locations most used for practical teaching were primary health care units. The 'treatment' module was taught by the fewest number of programs, and few programs had access to the IMCI instructional manuals. All programs used exams for evaluation, and private institutions were more likely to include class participation as part of the evaluation. Teaching staff in public institutions were more likely to have received training in teaching IMCI. CONCLUSION: In spite of the relevance of the IMCI strategy in care of the child, its content is not addressed in all undergraduate programs in Brazil, and many programs do not have access to the IMCI teaching manuals and have not provide training in IMCI to their teaching staff.

OBJECTIVE: to adapt and validate the Patient Expectations and Satisfaction with Prenatal Care instrument for use in Brazil. It contains 41 items divided into two dimensions: expectations and satisfaction. The adapted version was submitted to analysis for stability, convergent construct validity, and internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) for distinct groups and dimensions. METHOD: 119 pregnant women receiving prenatal care were interviewed and 26 of these women answered the instrument twice (retest). Internal consistency was appropriate (Cronbach's alpha = 0.70); test-retest presented strong correlation (r=0.82; p<0.001) for the domain expectations and moderate correlation (r=0.66; p<0.001) for the satisfaction domain. The analysis confirmed that the instrument's adapted version is valid in the studied group. RESULTS: there is strong evidence for the validity and reliability of the instrument's adaptation. CONCLUSION: the instrument needs to be tested in groups of pregnant women with different social characteristics.

OBJECTIVE: Describe the current situation of complementary therapies in nursing education in schools and nursing schools in Spain. METHOD: Descriptive study. Study population all faculties andschools ascribed to Spain. Data collection through observation sheet. Analysis units Curricula. Variables (credits, course type, location, type of therapy). Descriptive analysis of relative and absolute data using Excel spreadsheet. RESULTS: Most of the faculties and schoolsofnursingscrutinized the subject of Complementary Therapies has disappeared and those that aparace is an optional subject. CONCLUSION: Complementary Therapies training in Spain is deficient because it is not collected as a core subject and / or obligatory. The absence of Complementary Therapies in the curriculum, questions such as their value in training, conceptualization which teachers, the impact on quality of care, training of teachers responsible for teaching the subject, as well as the number of credits and the course being in the degree of Grado.

OBJECTIVE: To identify the meanings attributed by mothers to hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDPs) and their consequences, such as premature birth and hospitalization of the infant in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). METHOD: A qualitative study, based on the Central Nucleus Theory, with 70 women who had hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and preterm delivery. We used the technique of free word association (FWAT) with three stimuli: high blood pressure during pregnancy, prematurity and NICU. RESULTS: We obtained 1007 evocations, distributed as follows: high blood pressure during pregnancy (335) prematurity (333) and NICU (339). These constituted three thematic units: representation of HDPs, prematurity and the NICU. The categories death and negative aspects were inherent to the three units analyzed, followed by coping strategies and needs for care present in HDPs and prematurity. CONCLUSION: The study had death as its central nucleus, and highlighted the subjective aspects present in the high risk pregnancy and postpartum cycle. It is hoped that this research will contribute to qualifying nursing care for women confronting the problem of HDPs, so that they can cope with less impacts from the adverse effects of high risk pregnancy and birth.

AIM: This study aimed to verify the association between moment of the undergraduate course and cardiovascular risk factors in a representative sample of university students Methods: A total of 1,599 university students (1,197 freshmen and 402 seniors) were investigated for the following risk factors: insufficient practice of physical activity, tobacco and alcohol consumption, poor eating habits, excess body weight, increased waist circumference and elevated arterial pressure. Information regarding the practice of physical activity were obtained using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) instrument, the behaviors using the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance, and the socio-environmental information using the methodology of the Associação Brasileira de Empresas de Pesquisa (Brazilian Association of Research Companies). RESULTS: A significantly higher probability of presenting the following risk factors was verified among the senior students: insufficient practice of physical activity, smoked, consumed alcohol or drank alcohol in excess within the last thirty days. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that students closer to the end of the undergraduate course show a higher possibility of presenting some cardiovascular risk factors than those just entering the university environment. Therefore, prevention programs and health promotion during the undergraduate course should be investigated.

OBJECTIVE: to investigate aspects of the interaction which occurs between feeling and learning from the perspective of the neurosciences. METHOD: research with a qualitative approach, of the case study type, undertaken in Brazilian public nursing colleges. The research subjects were lecturers and students. The techniques of use of a questionnaire, individual interviews and a focus group were used in data collection. RESULTS: knowledge of cerebral functioning and the functioning of different structures involved in the learning of cognitive, technical, emotional and relational competences can help the lecturer in her task of teaching. CONCLUSIONS: we can outline the difficulties of learning and need, as lecturers, to develop teaching strategies based in the new knowledge from the neurosciences so as to maximize the students' learning. This new knowledge brings elements which contribute to the teacher's training, facilitate the process for the person learning, and make teaching more pleasurable.

OBJECTIVE: to investigate pre-frailty and the factors associated with this condition, taking into account the measurements of the older adults' gait speed. METHOD: participants were selected by means of inclusion/exclusion criteria and a cognitive tracking test. The sample was calculated based on the estimation of populational proportion and made up of 195 older adults who were using a Primary Health-Care Center in Curitiba in the state of Paraná. Data was collected using a socio-demographic/clinical questionnaire and the gait speed test. RESULTS: pre-frailty for gait speed has moderate prevalence (27.3%), and is associated with the 60 - 69 years age range, a low level of schooling, not feeling oneself to be alone, using anti-hypertensives, having cardiovascular disease and being overweight. CONCLUSION: it is considered relevant to identify those older adults with pre-frailty, as this creates the possibility for immediate intervention with the aim of stabilizing the picture. There is a significant shortage of studies on the syndrome of frailty in Brazilian older adults, principally referring to components in isolation. Given that gerontological nursing is at an early stage regarding this issue, it is understood that the identification of the prevalence must be the key point of the research on the matter.

OBJECTIVE: to analyze the rates of maternal mortality due to hemorrhage identified in Brazil from 1997 to 2009. Methods: the time series and population data from the Brazilian Health Ministry, Mortality Information System and Live Birth Information System were examined. From the Mortality Information System, we initially selected all reported deaths of women between 10 and 49 years old, which occurred from January 1, 1997 to December 31, 2009 in Brazil, recorded as a "maternal death". RESULTS: during the research period, 22,281 maternal deaths were identified, among which 3,179 were due to hemorrhage, accounting for 14.26% of the total deaths. The highest rates of maternal mortality were found in the North and Northeast areas of Brazil. CONCLUSIONS: the Brazilian scenario shows regional inequalities regarding maternal mortality. It presents hemorrhaging as a symptom and not as a cause of death.