ABSTRACT Objective: to describe the main evidence available in the literature on safe practices in the prevention and care of skin lesions in newborns admitted to Neonatal Intensive Care Units. Methods: integrative literature review in the PubMed, BDENF, LILACS, MEDLINE, SciELO and Cochrane Library databases between 2013 and 2018. We included primary articles on: lesion prevention and skin care in newborns in Portuguese, English or Spanish and excluded editorials, thesis, dissertations and duplicate articles. For the evidence level, we used the Melnyk and Fineout-Overholt classification, which classifies studies between weak to strong evidence. Results: a total of 10 articles with moderate to weak evidence on thermoregulation, bathing, lesion prevention, use of patches and skin antisepsis. Final considerations: there was a shortage of publications with high evidence, and it is necessary to invest in research that seeks to support safer skin care practices.