Objective: to identify and analyze evidence from studies about the importance of civilian nursing organizations.
Method: an integrative literature review, for which searches were conducted in the databases LILACS, PubMed/MEDLINE, SciELO, BDENF, and Scopus.
Results: sixteen articles published between the years 2004-2013 were selected, 68.75% of which were sourced from Brazilian journals and 31.25% from American journals.
Conclusion: civilian nursing organizations are important and necessary, because they have collaborated decisively in nursing struggles in favor of the working class and society in general, and these contributions influence different axes of professional performance.