摘要
objectives: to identify the learning needs of professional nurses to provide quality care for patients with arteriovenous fistula (av fistula) for hemodialysis. methods: this cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted with 36 professional nurses from the hemodialysis unit of a hospital in the state of sˋo paulo. a semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect the data. initially, questionnaires were distributed to 43 nurses, but only 36 (83.7%) responded and returned the questionnaires. results: a great number of nurses (44.9 %) reported to have difficulties in providing quality care for patients with av fistula. difficulties were related to the access of av fistula for hemodialysis (47.2%), hemostasis of the site when withdrawing the needle after hemodialysis (19.4%) and lack of competency for the management of hematoma (13.9%), and patient%26apos;s instructions and education (19.4%). conclusions: nurses had many learning needs to prepare them to care for patients with arteriovenous av fistula. this finding led to the development of a protocol to facilitated quality care nursing care.