This article aims at describing and analyzing the experience of teachers of a state school located in Pernambuco in the implementation of the curriculum by competencies in the technical nursing course. National guidelines for technical-level professional education were used as a theoretical referential. The technical nursing course was organized in four non-terminal modules, with a growing complexity in contents and specific competencies. Among the greatest difficulties found during curricular re-structuring, there are the teachers' and students' resistance concerning the adoption of new pedagogical practices and of a methodology to assess the constructed competencies. With the adoption of a new curriculum, there was the qualitative growth of the teachers and students' body, and an increase in the autonomy of the school to set out and update curricular components.
nursing education; health education; nursing