[The nursing process according to the view of nurses from a maternity]

The study aimed at knowing the meaning of the nursing process according to view of obstetric nurses. The research was carried in the first semester of 2005, in a reference maternity of Fortaleza-CE. The subjects were 32 nurses, in the obstetrics and gynecological attendance wards. A questionnaire was used to collect data. The identified thematic were: concepts on the nursing process; daily practical with the use of the process and obstacles for its implementation. We concluded that the nurses have knowledge on the process, but when analyzing the reality of the daily practical, some factors that make it difficult and that disable them to the implementation, as the time lack, quantitative of interned patients and the rotation of women in the puerperal time are pointed.