RESUMEN
This is a report about the experience of setting up a Specialization Program for Nurses in a "Residence" format, at the school-hospital of the Federal University of São Paulo, which mixes the traditional structure of specialization programs in Brazil with the model of the resident physician practical training. It began on February 1995, with the following objectives: 1) to qualify nurses, in different specialities, by an intensive training program, on a full-time schedule; 2) to contribute to improve the process of nursing care and; 3) to increase the quality of nursing assistance in our hospital. The results of our experience allow us to suggest that's a good way to qualify nurses for the best nursing practice, and to increase nursing research in a very practical basis.