The humanized care in Intensive Care Units: a literature review

Abstract

This study aimed to know which publications in the nursing area have been released about the humanization in Intense Care Units (ICU). This work is constituted of a systematic review, whose data were collected from the databases LILACS and BDNEF, during the period of the year 2000 to 2009. After the material was read, a categorization of the data was done and they were discussed. The results show that four topics appear more relevantly in the scientific production: the environment of the Intensive Care Unit; the use of technologies more than the care itself; the professional as the leading role of the humanization process in ICU; difficulties undergone by the nursing staff to implement the humanization in ICU. The humanization is pointed out as a way to rescue the human dignity, but that will only become reality if its real importance is understood and if the professionals feel as leading roles of this process in ICU