Building Professional Competences in the Context of Nursing Internship

Abstract

The article presents a case study developed in the context of a Nursing graduate programme within a Nursing School in Portugal, with the purpose of understanding the processes of building professional competences in the context of students’ internship. The data were collected through a questionnaire to the 2nd year students, and semi-structured interviews to a group of students and two supervisors, one from the training school and another from the hospital. Results highlight the existence of tensions related to the theory-practice relationship and to the articulation between the two training contexts. They signal the need to reinforce reflective, dialogic supervisory practices, as well as interinstitutional collaboration.

Key words: nursing; practicum; competences; supervision