This is a bibliographic review which analyzed 57 publications concerning care located in the LILACS database. The objective of this review was to recognize the theoretical bases and trends of this production. The article presents results related to the "social-historical conception" empirical category in its relation to work, education, and politics through its relevance to what emerged in a set of scientific production concerning care. The categories work, education, and politics showed important relationships in critical positions or proposals for theoretical alternatives for health and nursing care. Critical comprehension about work appears to be justified by its complexity and for being a mobilizing condition of professional and social interests about care. Work has shown itself to be an essential category for theoretical-political instrumentalization of professional action, made real through care, which in turn, through critical appropriation of work, may be a carrier for new values and configurations.
Work; Nursing; Philosophy, nursing; Nursing care