This is a descriptive study, with qualitative approach, aiming to identify the repercussions of heart failure on elders' quality of life; to describe the strategies used in facing these repercussions and, understand the perceptions of nursing care. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with ten elders holding heart insufficiency at a military hospital in Rio de Janeiro-RJ. It was identified that heart failure generates emotional, physical and financial repercussions in the elders' lives, provoking impact on their quality of life. Among the strategies created by the elders, it was noticed the palliative coping and the emotional conflict. The nursing cares noticed were orientation, affection, goodwill and dedication. To take care of the elders holding heart failure implies in evaluating repercussions in their functional capacity and autonomy, requiring capacities and competencies of the nurses to identify their specificities in the perspective of a whole care that contributes to the elders' quality of life.