Introduction:

Aging, a social and health phenomenon that affects contemporaneity, makes researchers focus on this population group, the growing human needs and responses that characterize them, as well as the human beings who spend time caring for the elderly. However, no references or any updated definition are identified as supported from the field of nursing, so it is necessary to analyze the approaches in the international and national context related to this subject.

Objective:

To systematize the term family caregiver of the elderly to achieve its contextualization in the field of nursing.

Methods:

A systematic review was carried out for a critical reflexive content analysis of documents published for 10 years, from 2005 to 2015, with a clear methodology and selected theoretical reference, during the month of July 2019. The following keywords identified in DeCS and Boolean operators were used: "cuidadores" AND "anciano" OR “adulto mayor” AND “enfermería” [in English, "caregivers" AND "elderly" OR "elderly" AND "nursing"]. The search was carried out in the database SciELO, redalyc and medigraphic. The flow chart (PRISMA) was used to contribute to the formulation of the search strategy.

Conclusions:

The systematization allowed the operational definition of family caregivers of the elderly from a nursing perspective, this is conceived as: An adult person close to or related by kinship, who assists or helps and makes decisions about the growing care of a member of the family aged 60 years or more, whose state of health and lack of adaptation to changes in the environment demand for the fulfillment of needs.

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