Reflecting on nursing care in an Intensive Care Unit

Abstract

This article is a theoretical and philosophical reflection focusing on the care given by the nursing team in an intensive care unit (ICU). Because of the constant situations of emergency, the ICU is stressful both for the professionals, patients and their family members. We notice that the care has a bio-medical model, seeing the patient as the bearer of a disease and dealing only with the curative aspect. As professionals, we do not have the power to cancel the diseases, but we need to direct our behavior so as to provide humanized assistance to the patient so that the period of hospitalization is the least painful possible.