This article discusses the concepts of basic human and health needs in order to set up the epistemological grounds for a concept of nursing care which allows the guidance for the professional action during the treatment, in the post modern context. The basic formulation addresses the access to human and healh needs through social representations, along with their conceptual derivations for nursing care and their work technologies. Evidence is provided that health needs can be productively addressed through the exploration of their objective and subjetive dimensions in the health-disease process, as represented by their subjects and underlying demands. Further discussion is offered on the need to alter the technological work model and the need to set up new theoretical frameworks for the nursing care process, from the requirements negotiated between the individual and collective subjects and professionals in health.
Needs assessment; Nursing care; Delivery of Health Care