Informed consent is a legal document signed by an individual who will undergo an intervention in the health area, or in the research field. This informed consent reflects the individual wellbeing and autonomy and his / her capacity, once he or she has been illustrated in detail about the intervention, to understand its main results and its potential risks of said intervention and his / her willingness to assume it without external pressure. Although this seems trivial, history shows that wellbeing and autonomy have not been considered values in the health area and lesser in research, intentionally or by omission. For the present review, a bibliographic search was carried out in PubMed, Medline, Scielo and Google Scholar databases. The following descriptors were used: history of research, ethics, informed consent, research, nursing and comprehension. We found 2800 articles, in English, Portuguese and Spanish, without time limit. Then after reading abstract of the Articles it was selected 80 articles that were close to the subject and there were used. As a result of the analysis of the information, some guidelines were generated aimed to improve the informed consent process through techniques that improve the explanation by the health professional and the understanding of the participant or patient.