The nursing care system from a Luhmannian perspective.

OBJECTIVE to investigate the socially-relevant communication of the nursing system from the Luhmannian perspective. METHOD the investigation process was based in grounded theory. The data was collected between February and September 2011, through interviews carried out with nurses and student nurses at a university in the South of Brazil. RESULTS The central phenomenon--recognizing nursing care as an all-embracing interactive and associative phenomenon--resulted from the inter-weaving of three categories: learning the context of care as a whole, organizing the environment for the other professionals, and visibilizing interactive and associative care. CONCLUSION investing in a socially relevant communication for nursing entails developing a code for functional differentiation, which may strengthen health promotion and healthy living for individuals, families and communities.