[Overview of Nursing Graduation courses in Brazil in the National Curriculum Guidelines decade]

The study aims to build a general overview of the Nursing Graduation Programs in Brazil, in the decade of the National Curriculum Guidelines for Nursing Graduation, period 2001-2011. This is an exploratory, descriptive study, based on data from the e-MEC, Higher Education Census, ENADE. The results evidenced: the privatization of the Nursing Graduation Programs, the oversupply of courses and places day and night; sharp expansion of the number of vacancies for distance learning, not meeting the minimum quality criteria evaluated by ENADE, among other respects. It is recommended that strategies for the regulation of the expansion already installed must be defined, in addition to the revision of indicators drawn from the INEP Single Form, to meet the necessities of nursing, as an specific area, particularly with regard to: the number of vacancies, integration with the local and regional health system and the SUS, education in health care, teaching practical activities, working arrangements and experience of the faculty of the course. It is recommended, though, the immediate intervention of the MEC in the poles of Distance Education, suspending the training of nurses in that modality of education.