This qualitative study is part of the health and society area, work process and health knowledge sub-area. As a workforce study - the human element of work - it aimed to understand the nurse identity construction process on the basis of everyday work experience. Berger and Luckmann and Agnes Heller were the primary reference framework. This study was carried out at a public hospital in Cuiabá - Mato Grosso, Brazil. The nurse essentially revealed to be a being in construction in time, space and daily relations. To be a nurse means to have perceptions and expressions that can be materialized to a greater or lesser extent. The way of being a nurse indicates his/her material, sensitive and expressive forms, molded according to time, space and relations and representing a conjunction of the being and his/her perceptions/expressions.
ego; nurse; professional practice; professional nursing role