[Competency-based training for nurses: alternation between theory and practice, professionalization, and complex thought].

This study aims at eliciting a reflection on a competency-based education for nurses by understanding alternation as a necessary condition for an articulation between theory and practice, as well as at discussing some issues related to competency-based education and professionalization. We have searched to widen up our understanding of what competencies are and of an articulation between theory and practice. We have discussed the notion of professionalization and some ways of working on competencies by following different approaches and distinctive objectives, and we have reached an understanding about competencies, how to act in some situations, what leads to educational commitment, and what calls for contextualized and complex thought.

[Beliefs about nursing in the Revista Brasileira de Enfermagem: reflections on ideals, science, and art].

The inquiry of this study is the beliefs related to the nursing professional in the first decades of this activity in Brazil. The investigation presupposes that some of these beliefs are still current. The objective is to point out the beliefs expressed by Revista Brasileira de Enfermagem (Brazilian Journal of Nursing) in 33 articles, during the period between 1932 (when the journal was created) and 1954.