This study is part of a larger survey called "Use of indicators in nurses' managerial practice in Basic Health Care Units in the city of Rio de Janeiro", which was carried out in the Basic Health Care Units of the Planning Area 5.3 and whose objectives were to identify nurses' conception regarding the tools required for management in those units and to discuss the role of management in organizing health services. The study is descriptive and data were collected in interviews with seven nurse managers. The results show that health services actions are organized and directed to the purpose of the working process through the relationship esta-blished between the object, the instruments and the final product, and that for those nurses the end result to be achieved is client's satisfaction and the quality of medical and nursing care.
Working process; Management; Nursing; Local health systems