[An alternative proposal for the scientific productivity of nurse practitioners]

We report our experience with University extension courses on research methodology offered to nurse practitioners in order to provide them with some fundaments about the topic. These courses, which were given in 1984, 1986 and 1988 by the Nursing School of Ribeirão Preto-USP, were proposed by the coordinators who felt it is necessary to stimulate the scientific production of nurse practitioners; thus, the basic proposal of the courses was to promote this stimulation, thus, in addition to presenting the content of different research methodologies, the courses discussed nursing research that appeared to be relevant for practice. Some time after the courses were given, the nurses who had taken them were approached in order to obtain information to be used for the elaboration of future courses and to evaluate the contribution made by the initial courses in terms of stimulation of research by nurse practitioners.