[Nursing research, an active process in nursing].
Nursing knowledge can be produced through academic, assistance and collaborative model. There are few Nursing services in Brazil that stimulate research production by clinical nurses. This study aims to analyze declarations of nurses about the process of conducting research on their work places, having as a framework the symbolic interactionism. The data was collected through interviews with eleven nurses. The analysis led to the process of researching with six phases: the situation; the perception; the interpretation; the act; the manipulation and the consumation. The authors concluded that nurses interact with themselves and others, defining and interpreting their situation, their own actions as well as the other's. Through defining and interpreting the situation, they build their actions directed or not to activities related to research according to the meaning given by them to this "social object".