[Seeds of palliative care: nurses' discourse order]

Palliative care is becoming a professional knowledge and performance field by means of the proposal of another "regimen of truths". Such fact can be observed in the broadening of palliative care services and in the increase of publications on the subject. This study aims at learning the discourses on palliative care that the nurses have conveyed in the nursing publications. For such purpose we approached the Cultural Studies, especially those inspired on Michel Foucault in order to analyze articles published in two national nursing periodicals from 1999 to 2007. Among the statements, we point out those that see the hospital as a site where the patient is divested of his individuality and identity and those that mention such care as capable of providing the family and the patient with the best quality of life possible during the death process.