Saúde coletiva: identificando instrumentos no processo de trabalho da enfermagem *

This is a study of nurses working in the Basic Health Care Services of the Public Health Care System in the town of Rio Grande, in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. It focuses on the work process in Collective Health, in order to visualize the instruments used by health workers in their work. We found that the relevant instruments were the knowledge acquired during training and that practiced in their daily work, which included health education. Therefore, in order to carry out the education actions, we must consider the environment in which the subject works, and think about insertion in the environment from the beginning of professional training.