This investigation included 25 male adult patients with Acute Myocardial Infarction admitted in a Coronary Disease Unit located in the Municipality of São Paulo, Brazil. It aimed at identifying the meaning those patients give to the word comfort. Data collection was carried using a specific form and manually processed; answers to open questions were treated using the BARDIN'S² content analysis method and the results were basically analyzed in absolute numbers and percentages and organized in tables and figures. Comfort was expressed by several ways, from material and financial conditions, enjoyment of personal interactions, sense of physical, psychological, and spiritual well-being to normal functioning which means recovery expectations, disease-freedom and capacity to perform usual activities. Material and financial conditions (29,4%) and personal interactions (21,6%) were emphasized. In addition to the conclusions directly related to the objective, the results showed that: (a) viewing the multidimensional aspects related to comfort, it should not be exclusively considered as dependent of nursing care; (b) various indicators identified suggested that the same meaning for comfort was expressed or described in most varied ways.
comfort; nursing care
