The challenge of teaching how to care: the vision of the Nursing undergraduate student

Abstract

This paper refers to teaching/learning in a subject named Fundaments of Human Care III – Care Module – at the Nursing School of the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, under the vision of the undergraduate student. In 1996, the subject started at the fourth semester of the curriculum, constituted of its basic thematic, and in which the students learn about the genesis of human care process. The daily reports of the students during this module practice at the Pediatric Oncology Unit (POU) of a University Hospital, in Porto Alegre, RS, were submitted to phenomenological analysis, based on Merleau-Ponty (Martins, 1992). From this analysis emerged the significance expressed by the student of the experiences on the POU; the relation between teaching-practice; theoretical basis and care.