Objective:

Describe the social representations that have primary health care´s nurses on care with medicinal plants in patients with chronic diseases.

Methods:

Qualitative, descriptive, hermeneutical study, with a focus of the Social Representations in their procedural approach. The data collection methods was the interview and focus groups. Was used the triangulation of sources and data, and the inductive qualitative content analysis.

Results:

It´s found three dimensions and eleven categories. The dimensions were: Beware of medicinal plants in the personal and professional field; motivations to care with medicinal plants and difficulties to care with medicinal plants.

Conclusions:

Nurses point out that these therapies, associated with the ancestral, allow care from a holistic perspective, which is the core of the actions and thinking of nursing.