The aim of this study was to identify how nursing students perceive and experience the learning process during curricular practice in a hospital setting. A qualitative, retrospective, documentary study was developed in an undergraduate nursing course. Data were comprised of 162 posts made by 34 students in the online discussion forum of the Learning Management System Moodle, during the first half of 2011. The following themes emerged from the thematic content analysis: "nursing students' understanding about the professional practice," and "the teaching and learning process in the perspective of nursing students." The study demonstrated that the forum was a place for reporting experiences such as the description of the physical area, performing procedures, perception of nursing care activities, conflicts with peers, coping with death and learning evaluation. The online discussion forum needs to be used by professors as a space of interaction so as to contribute to professional training.
Nursing; Education, Nursing; Students, Nursing; Educational technology