The aim of this qualitative study was to subsidize an evaluation of human resources management (HR) in nursing and to apprehend how the nursing managers and academic professors experience the use of quality indicators. Twelve academic professors, 10 managers from four teaching and assistance, public and private institutions in the city of São Paulo took part of this study. Data collection was carried out from March to July 2007, by means of semi-structured interviews, recorded and analyzed according to the thematic analysis referential. Two categories emerged from the results: Institutional and Professional Dimensions; in the first category, perceptions, feelings and demands that the collaborators found inherent to the organization and that could be the counterpart in the institution relationship with the operative actors were recovered. In the second category, they reported the intervenient factors - reasons, interests, disposition and professionals´ needs when performing activities required by the Institution. This study showed the processual character of construction and validation of indicators as a quality management instrument in HR.
Human resources; Nursing staff; Evaluation; Quality managment