Humanization in theory and in practice: the construction of a nursing team’s work

Abstract

doi: 10.5216/ree.v15i2.17916 - http://dx.doi.org/10.5216/ree.v15i2.17916.

ABSTRACT

This descriptive, exploratory and qualitative study was developed at a public Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in Goiânia (Goiás, Brazil), with the objective to describe the concept and practice of care humanization developed by nurses of the referred ICU, who form a team undergoing a continuous process of development and scientific study. Data collection was performed in 2011, with seven nurses of the ICU, by means of taped semi-structured interviews, which were transcribed and categorized by content analysis, revealing the categories “The concept of humanization” and “Practice in the everyday intensive care routine”. Nurses are familiar with the concept and know how to practice humanized care, but still do not apply that knowledge in every situation, assigning this to external factors. It is necessary to identify the bottlenecks of this process to help plan the interventions needed to produce effective changes in the behavior of these workers.

Descriptors: Humanization of Assistance; Nursing; Intensive Care Units.