[Representations of the postgraduate course and research for the nursing professional]

This study was made as a final paper for the discipline "Analysis of Social Representations in the Health Area" in a master's degree course on May 1998. The objectives were to identify the social representations of the post-graduate courses for the nursing professional and to understand how he/she viewed research in the daily practice. To verify this, the theory of social representations, which shows the common sense knowledge, was adopted. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with five nursing assistants, who were nursing graduate students and met the criteria established. Results showed categories that emerged from discourse such as: practice qualification; broadening of professional view regarding the nursing practice, professional growth and research development. The conclusion wast: as the nursing professionals seek strategies to transform their practices, they invest on post-graduation courses because these represent a knowledge resource that can provide quality, credibility and efficiency for the professional performance.