This qualitative study aims at understanding undergraduate Nursing students' experiences in daily hospital training situations, reflecting on the formation process and highlighting the human dimension. Understanding this may give subsidies for a reflection on the humanization of health/nursing practice. Thirteen students who were finishing the 6th and beginning the 7th semester in November/December 2003 and February/March 2004 were interviewed individually. The analysis of these interviews revealed the following important themes: being faced with other peoples' suffering is a "humanizing" experience; dichotomy technical knowledge/human knowledge; value of the human dimension: theoretical learning; the health team as a model of (un) learning; training experiences arouse feelings in the students; student-teacher relation: limits and facilities. There is a need to rethink the formation process, investing in coordinated actions that favor transformations in service and in schools involving teachers, students and workers.
Education, nursing; Students, nursing; Humanism; Qualitative research