[Knowledge about communication in nursing in the international literature]

The author tried to identify the producer of knowledge; the vehicle used; the addressed, based on the presentation the nurse's functions; the processes of elaboration, divulgation and utilization of the knowledge; the theoretical and methodological approaches used in the studies of communication in nursing 1725 quotations in this subject were identified on the table of contents of INI, CINAHL and IMLA. 640 were available in Brazil and 98.1% of them were analysed. The greatest amount of publications were concerned to caring, (46.7%) followed by the educational (25.2%) and administrative (14.1%) areas. Most of the authors are centralized on the process of the production of Knowledge (79.4%). The most expressive theoretical embasement is related to interpersonal context. The most frequent methodological procedures show the initial state of the knowledge in this area, and the studies are predominantly descriptive.