Bibliographic research developed among the 24 fascicles from the "Revista Brasileira de Enfermagem" presented in the SciELO database, from 2005 to 2008. The objective was to identify emergent themes on qualitative researches published on a nursing periodic; correlate theses themes with the knowledge production in nursing and reflect about the social role of these qualitative researches analyzed. After analysis, 173 qualitative studies were identified, and three categories arose: nursing training, areas of practice, nursing care basis/ principles/ conceptions, and professional issues. In the relationship among the categories, the patterns of knowledge and the social role highlight the social-political knowledge, reflecting the profession maturation regarding intrinsic social issues, part of it social body; and extrinsic, the demands from society.
Research; qualitative research; Knowledge