Understanding violence as a public health problem brings as required its inclusion in the curricula of undergraduate courses in health.

To describe the approach to the topic of violence and the teaching strategies used by teachers of undergraduate courses in nursing of two public higher education institutions of the State of São Paulo, Brazil.

Knowing the approach to the topic of violence in two nursing under graduation courses.

Descriptive, exploratory qualitative study. For data collection, semi-structured interview was used; were subject of the study, 15 teachers of the institutions studied that ministered courses whose programs contained the word “violence” or related. The data were subjected to analysis of the “collective subject discourse”.

The results referred to speeches about the importance of addressing violence in theory and practical course, the experience of violence in the everyday practice and pedagogical strategies in the theoretical and practical learning. Teachers recognize the importance of violence be crafted at graduation, describing that, although not always appear in the formal curriculum, the subject appears in an informal way in academic training. Recognize, however, that there is a fragmentation in the approach of the theme, because teachers are divided between theoretical and practical classes and not all of them study the subject.

It is essential that there should be more discussions on violence among teachers as well as be designed strategies to better approach the theme at graduation.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.