The nursing community seems to agree on the general meaning of “self-care” as a concept allowing the individual to take care of his/her own health. Yet the terms self-care and other “self-concepts” are often used interchangeably. Since this concept is central to nursing, it appeared crucial to undertake a course of action to clarify and to deepen the understanding of its development within the field of nursing. The objective of this evolutionary concept analysis was to identify the state of precision or clarity of the concept in the available nursing literature. The identification of attributes, antecedents and consequences has highlighted the characteristics as it has been used by various authors and ultimately provides a basis for further research. Following this analysis, it is possible to propose that the concept of self-care refers to an activity initiated, consciously and following learning, which is appropriate to the situation and focused on a goal. Furthermore, this concept is widely used in contexts of long-term illnesses and much less so in contexts of acute diseases. In conclusion, work still needs to be carried out in order to better differentiate the concept of self-care from other self-concepts when used in situations where a third party is involved in the realization of self-care.