Performance analysis of nursing students in teaching by skills and for understanding.

Objective To analyze the performance of students of the course Supervised Curricular Internship based on skills (curriculum A) and teaching for understanding (curriculum B). Method Exploratory descriptive, quantitative and documentary study. The location of the research was a private university of the city of São Paulo and for data collection were used 312 performance assessment tools for students of the course being studied. Results The assessment of the performance of curriculum A students had no difference compared to the overall average of curriculum B students. The A students showed better performance in relation to B in the intensive care unit and in pedagogical practices, and B showed better performance in attitudinal bases topics and management. Students who are nursing technicians have better performance and, those working in the afternoon have better grades. Conclusion It was not proven that students of the course Supervised Curricular Internship of the understanding curriculum (B) had better performance than the students of the skills curriculum (A). The technical training of nursing and work shift were variables that interfered in student performance regardless of the type of curriculum. During the study there was the possibility of analyzing the performance assessment tools for students, as well as the filling by professors, noting that there is need for better structuring of the evaluation of student performance and, above all, a process of training of professors for the execution of this activity.