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Academic Master's courses in the field of nursing: an analysis of course load.

OBJECTIVE
to identify, among the Academic Master's courses, run by Brazilian post-graduate nursing programs, analyzed in the three-yearly evaluation (2007-2009) of the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES), the course load stated by the programs for training Master's degree students.


METHOD
a descriptive, quantitative, documental study, with data collected in July 2010, through consulting the above-mentioned Coordination's reports in the item "Programs' Proposals", in the Table of Indicators, available on the Internet.


RESULTS
discrepancies were found between the course loads of the 32 Academic Master's courses in the different regions of Brazil, with the smallest having a course load of 315 hours and the largest, 1530 hours.


CONCLUSIONS
greater discussion is needed about the course load necessary for training the competencies and skills for the profile desired for the students on graduating from the course. The study provides advances in nursing knowledge, as previous investigations on the same issue were not identified. It is hoped that Academic Master's courses in nursing may see themselves in this process and may review their pedagogical decisions in the light of the new models of training/qualification of nursing professionals, centered in science, technology and innovation in the area.