Objective:

Describe and interpret the experiences of nurses with an expanded role in interprofessional collaboration.

Material and methods:

Descriptive-qualitative, exploratory study. Between May and October 2019, after signing the informed consent, an in-depth interview was intentionally conducted with 20 nurses with a minimum academic level of bachelor's degree, with diplomas, courses, specialty and/or master's degree, who had already been working for a minimum of 3 years in a service with attention to the elderly in public or private health institutions of 1st and 3rd level of care. The interviews were transcribed and the thematic content data analysis proposed by De Souza and the phenomenological method was carried out, supported by the Atlas Ti Software.

Results:

Two categories emerged: 1. Collaboration between nursing professionals: Guaranteeing continuity and quality of care, where the expanded role nurse collaborates with nurses of different levels of competence. 2. Interprofessional collaboration: moving towards teamwork, that is, it collaborates directly with health professionals in the care of the elderly when it is integrated into the geriatrics team. On the contrary, it is difficult to establish an interprofessional collaboration with internists and general practitioners.

Conclusions:

The nursing professional is on the way to make their expanded role visible, without having to replace or carry out medical activities, but based on their established competencies to work collaboratively.

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