Introduction

Nursing care implies an interpersonal process between a sick person and a healthy one, and the communication is a fundamental element within these relationships.

Objective

To reflect on these interpersonal relationships, and the transcendence which communication has on care.

Methods

With tools such as Academic Google and databases such as PubMed-MEDLINE and ScieLo, a review of diverse systematic and narrative research articles, both qualitative and quantitative, was carried out. From a total of 120 articles found, 58 which fulfilled the selection criteria-men and women between 18 and 60 years old, published between 2008 and 2013, focused on any of the three levels of attention, in English, Spanish, or Portuguese, and with full texts - were chosen.

Results

Five groups were established according to the content and results to describe the most significant issues around this kind of personal relationships.

Conclusions

Those selected articles mainly consider the area of intensive care, and the area of observation of grave or terminal patients. Considering the value of verbal communication, the importance of non-verbal communication is also highlighted. Although, it is observed that the development of technology has contributed to improve the health of patients, sometimes it has also become a barrier to personal relationships. Moreover, excessive workloads displace further an acknowledgment of the importance which effective nurse-patient personal relationships have.