PIP: In Nicaragua, 2 epidemiologists designed a 6-day course on epidemiology and field research which promoted field and process oriented teaching. The health workers spent 50% of their time working together in groups, 33% in lectures, and 17% in joint sessions. The groups identified research problems in breast feeding, nutritional status, primary health care, and delivery complications. They came up with research objectives, variables, and various study design options. They developed a research protocol which imitated a full-scale study, including sampling frame, sampling methods, and practical field arrangements. They either interviewed people or used retrospective data (interviews or hospital records). They put the data in microcomputers where they were analyzed. The groups merged at the end of the workshop to discuss the group reports. The breast-feeding group identified the problem of not knowing whether women still breast feed for 1.5 to 2 years and what socioeconomic factors affect breast-feeding practices. This group planned a cross sectional study of mothers to determine when they complete breast feeding or whether they breast feed at all and age of child. Data collection included an informed consent, a questionnaire, and a standardized interview. Group members used the life analysis method to determine duration of breast feeding. They learned that 8 months was the median duration of breast feeding and the more educated mothers breast fed for a shorter interval than did the less education mothers. After the course, the medical faculty at Leon University shifted its research emphasis from intramural clinical issues to community-based problems and required a proper research protocol from each student. A year after the course, most participants had taken part in epidemiological studies other than the one in the course and believed the course increased their appreciation of epidemiology, but they also found it to be intensive and some methods and concepts were hard to understand.