[Caring for the patient in the process of dying at the Intensive Care Unit]

The objective of this study is to characterize how nursing care is performed at the ICU to patients with no possibility of cure. Ten nurses were interviewed. The field study was performed at the Intensive Care Unit of a public teaching hospital. For the nurses, there is no uniform pattern of care. Furthermore, according to their reports, it was observed that there is an overestimation of the technical care over the emotional, social and spiritual aspects. It was, however, observed that nurses are strongly with the suffering of the family in view of their loss. Results show that nurses must understand death as a part of the life cycle and review care as the essence of nursing, thus increasing the discussions on the issue in both the academic and daily practice environments.