The complex nursing care is essential for understanding the human being as unique and multidimensional. This study aimed at knowing what nursing care means to nurse-teachers in the perspective of complexity. It is a qualitative research, carried out with seven nurse-teachers of a nursing school from central Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Data were collected in November 2011, through focus group,from three meetings, systematized with themes which considered the objective of this study. Discursive text analysis was used for data analysis. Results evinced nursing care as unique construction that goes beyond a technical-prescriptive, punctual and linear care. It is concluded that nursing care cannot be conceived as a reductionist action, but as a unique construction, which involves interactions, reflections and self-knowledge.