Nursing practices in the primary health care context: a scoping review

OBJECTIVE: to identify and categorize the practices performed by nurses working in Primary Health Care and Family Health Strategy Units in light of responsibilities established by the profession's legal and programmatic frameworks and by the Brazilian Unified Health System. METHOD: a scoping review was conducted in the following databases: LILACS, IBECS, BDENF, CINAHL and MEDLINE, and the Cochrane and SciELO libraries. Original research papers written by nurses addressing nursing practices in the primary health care context were included. RESULTS: the review comprised 30 studies published between 2005 and 2014. Three categories emerged from the analysis: practices in the service; practices in the community; and management and education practices. CONCLUSION: the challenges faced by nurses are complex, as care should be centered on the population's health needs, which requires actions at other levels of clinical and health responsibility. Brazilian nursing has achieved important advancements since the implementation of policies intended to reorganize work. There is, however, a need to shift work processes from being focused on individual procedures to being focused on patients so that an enlarged clinic is the ethical-political imperative guiding the organization of services and professional intervention.