OBJECTIVE: To understand the experience of being woman, mother, and nurse. METHODS: This phenomenological study was conducted in a teaching hospital in Curitiba, Brazil from June 2005 to March 2006. The sample consisted of seven nurses. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. RESULTS: The main emerged theme was "Exploitation and alienation of the body of the nurse until its exhaustation." CONCLUSION: Nurses have difficulties in assuming other roles in professional organizations and institutional administration due to workload and exhaustion in performing their personal and professional tasks.
Women; Women's work; Nurses; Hospitals