ABSTRACT OBJECTIVE: to understand Neonatal Intensive Care nurses experiences caring for dying neonates. METHODS: this was an qualitative exploratory study. Ten Neonatal Intensive Care Unit nurses from a school-affiliated hospital in Fortaleza, Ceará participated in this study. Data were collected during May and June, 2003. RESULTS: the following categories emerged from the analysis: feelings in the presence of death; interacting with the family in the process of dying; and, educational inadequacies coping with a terminally ill neonate. The feelings expressed by the nurses included loss, sadness, misery, weakness, and detachment. The nurses also see themselves involved with the grieving family, although the majority of them reported not having enough foundational knowledge with grief and thanatology. CONCLUSION: those nurses who deal with death in the workplace, such as the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, are trying to keep a balance between caring for others and themselves.
Attitude to death; Thanatology; Intensive care neonatal; Grief; Professional-family relations