Theory and practice of cultural care: a journey from the classroom to care practices

Goals: Understand the relationship that is established among professors, students and assistencial nurses, between the theory and practice of cultural care. Methods: Qualitative, hermeneutic, with a critical approach. A sociodemographic questionnaire, discussion groups and episodic interviews were used. Model: 34 participants: 6 teachers, 11 nurses and 17 students. Results: Three subjects were identified: 1. The theory and practice of cultural care in nursery: the learned knowledge. The cultural care is not formalized in the curriculum, some aspects from the cultural care are included in the theory of the courses. 2. Practice and theory of the cultural care in nursery: the lived experience. The rigid protocols and homogenizers from the health institutions were the major obstacle to specify along the practice of cultural care. 3: The relationship of theory and practice in nursery: what is recognized. Professors and nurses formers of human talent recognize their lack of preparation to form the students in cultural care. Conclusions: There is a breach between the theory and the practice around cultural care. It is required to include the cultural care in the curriculum and make it congruent with the theory and the practice, allowing the dialog of knowledge and surpassing not only the communication barriers, but attitudinal and institutional, which were found in the study.