The study seeks to examine the dynamics of the nursing work process in the Intensive Care Unit, pointing out weaknesses, potentialities, limitations, and veiled/unveiled contradictions in the instruments utilized by nurses. This is a qualitative investigation, with dialectic orientation, which takes place in an Intensive Care Unit of a hospital in Santa Catarina, Brazil. We use semi-structured interviews applied to seven nurses, with participatory observation and documentary analysis. The theoretical-philosophical references are the Marxist and Gramscian conceptions of the work process. The results reinforce the use of technological variables centered on a medical-hegemonic model, responsible for the strengthening of parceled and fragmented activities. We observe the predominance of technologies originated from the evolution of science and little- centered on the relationships between citizens. We find that the unit seems to create an opportunity to discuss and to comprehend how the professional practices produce-reproduce effects and displacements in the day-to-day care of services and interpersonal relationships.
Intensive care; Work; Nursing care