Training in diabetes education: meanings attributed by primary care nurses

Objective: seize meanings attributed by primary care nurses to training in diabetes education. Method: exploratory and descriptive study, with a qualitative approach, with twenty primary care nurses; semistructured interview script, with interviews processed in the IRaMuTeQ software and analyzed through the Descending Hierarchical Classifi cation. The results were subsidized in the Representational Theory of Meaning. Results: nurse training in diabetes education is insuffi cient for holistic action, although it allows the community to be instrumentalized in specifi c issues about the disease, using the limited tools available, especially lectures. Nurses fi nd themselves in a context of challenges, improvisations, weaknesses, and limitations that determine the meaning attributed to diabetes education and subsequent actions. Conclusion: the meanings attributed by the nurses revealed an incipient training, which limits the quality of care provided and instigates the search for qualifi cation.