Objective: To analyze the production of scientific knowledge about the use of patients' classification instruments in care and management practice in Brazil.
Method: Integrative literature review with databases search in: Latin American and Caribbean Literature on Health Sciences (LILACS), Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System on-line (MEDLINE), Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) and SCOPUS, between January 2002 through December 2013.
Results: 1,194 studies were found, 31 met the inclusion criteria. We observed a higher number of studies in the category care plans and workload (n=15), followed by the category evaluation of psychometric properties (n=14).
Conclusion: Brazilian knowledge production has not yet investigated some purposes of using instruments for classifying patients in professional nursing practice. The identification of unexplored areas can guide future research on the topic.