[Nursing for indigenous people: applying curricular guidelines]

Report on the Curricular Internship II in a Rural Indian Community, performed by students of the Nursing program from Manaus Nursing School--Federal University of Amazonas, carried out from October through December, 2002. It provided students with an opportunity to understand the health-disease process in Indian areas and to make nursing interventions. The training period was divided into three phases: a preparatory week, including meetings and lectures with the team delivering health care to Indian populations, and a seminar/report on the activities performed. Students reported that nurses need to have anthropological, ecological, and social knowledge in order to understand the health-disease process. This internship period provides emancipatory education, centered around a kind of regional reality, and follows recommendations established in current curricular guidelines, by favoring a teaching practice focused on local realities.