OBJECTIVE: To describe the teaching and learning process of a pedagogical model to educate nurses for the Brazilian universal health care system / family health program (UHS/FHP) in use at a higher education institution in the north of Brazil. METHODS: Focus groups and individualized semi-structured interviews with 6 senior nursing students were used to collect the data. The education theory of Paulo Freire and the UHS/FHP literature guided this hermeneutic study. RESULTS: There was a vertical relationship between nursing faculty and students, a lack of autonomy among nursing students, a lack of power for articulation among nursing students, and a lack of articulation of nursing faculty regarding the relationship between the teaching and learning process and the nursing practice in the UHS/FHP. CONCLUSION: There is a need for re-orientation of the teaching and learning process of nursing at the institution studied.
Higher education; Nursing; Family health; Education