Nurses' training in prehospital care.

The performance of nurses in prehospital care (PHC) assumes acquiring specific competences. The objectives of the present study were to verify nurses' opinion on theoretical knowledge and nursing skills necessary for the practice in pre-hospital setting and to analyze them according to their clinical practice. In this descriptive study, the opinion of nurses, from public pre-hospital care services of the City of São Paulo, was collected through a questionnaire and the data of the clinical practice using forms. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation was mentioned more often as basic knowledge (84%), and the most frequent procedure was oxygen therapy (15.5%). The analysis of nurses' opinion indicated that the basic topics were related to situations that demanded making decisions, readiness and skill under stress or caring for a specific population, making training important in this area.