The purposes of this research was to identify the activities developed by the nurses after undergraduation course at the School of Nursing of the University of São Paulo and to characterize their insertion in Intensive Care Units (ICUs), in relation to have been or not their first area of job, their previous experience in ICU, the specific initial training and difficulties faced to take on the ICU activities. The population was composed by nurses graduated between 1991 and 1995. A rol of names, addresses and telephone numbers was obtained at the school office. Two hundred and thirty five questionnaires were sent by mail and 117 (49,8%) were returned. The majority of the respondents (90,5%) were working as nurses, mainly in hospitals, which was the most indicated area of work (76,2%). Almost half of the informants (47,0%) said they worked or were working in ICUs and for 54,5% of them, this was their first job; 52,8% had no previous experience in ICU. Although 64,1% of these nurses had received a specific initial training, some difficulties to take on the ICU activities were faced: lack of knowledge and psychomotor skills (45,4%), handling equipments (25,8%) and relationship with the multiprofessional and the nursing team (8,2%).
Education, Nursing; Nursing profession; Intensive care units
