The scope of this article was to describe the configuration of the work of nurses with the elderly within the Family Healthcare Strategy, highlighting the actions in which their activities are concentrated. It involved an exploratory-descriptive study of a qualitative nature, in which the informants were nurses working in the FHS in Florianópolis in the state of Santa Catarina. Data were collected through narrative interviews and the results were subjected to content analysis, resulting in three thematic categories and their subcategories: individual care: nursing consultation with the elderly; collective care: working in groups; home care: the visit as the scope of activity. The results revealed that the work of nurses in promoting the health of the elderly in the FHS is being structured in accordance with the day-to-day demands that arise in the population, resulting in some contradictions regarding the current model of care. This situation leads to the challenge of reviewing practices and rethinking ways of working to care for the elderly, striving to develop tools and methodologies based on politically and socially established know-how in order to gain and demarcate their sphere of action in the field of health.
Health of the elderly; Health promotion; Family Healthcare Program; Community health nursing
