[Dialectics for humanized care in ICU's: contradictions between professional nursing discourse and practice]

Area of Science:

• Nursing
• Sociology of Health
• Critical Theory

Context:

• Qualitative study in an Adult Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the Hospital of the Federal University of Santa Catarina.
• Involves 7 nurses, 4 family members, and 1 patient.
• Utilizes participatory observation and semi-structured interviews.

Purpose:

• To unveil contradictions within humanized nursing care in ICUs.
• To explore the dialectical relationship between care knowledge and practice.
• To apply Marxist and Gramscian concepts of contradiction as a theoretical framework.

Summary:

• Humanized care operates within a complex network where knowledge may yield to network connections.
• Care practice often adopts an impersonal strategy, driven by partitioned and routine healthcare production.
• A dissociation between care knowledge and practice is evident, linked to difficulties in managing suffering and institutional constraints.

Impact:

• Highlights the challenges nurses face in integrating humanized care within complex ICU systems.
• Emphasizes the need for continuous re-evaluation and reconstruction of nursing practice, knowledge, and work relations.
• Provides insights into the socio-political and economic factors influencing healthcare delivery in critical care settings.