Potentialities and deficiencies of qualitative research with families

objective. to analyze the literature relating to qualitative research about the theme family that was published in brazilian nursing journals in the period from 2006 to 2010. methodology. research involving investigation of bibliographic databases of articles presenting descriptors like the following terms: family, qualitative research and nursing. results. 47 articles were analyzed. the most frequent topic areas are: child health (40.4%), adult health (23.4%), mental health (19.1%), collective health (6.4%), elderly health (6.4%) and woman's health (4.3%). 70.6% of the articles were published in journals classified by qualis/ capes as b1. 93.6% of the articles were written by nurses with a doctorate degree. data collection was predominantly carried out using semistructured (57.4%) and open interviews (39.8%). the interviews were followed by observation methods in 8.5% of the analyzed studies. conclusion. the literature about qualitative studies that address the theme family which was published in brazilian nursing journals during the study period is rare, which shows the need to further address the topic.