This paper focuses on the working conditions of nursing technicians of Neonatal Units, considering the relational dimension of the care activity. Having as main epistemological references Canguilhem's concept of health of and the Ergological perspective, the research was based on the clinical approaches of work, including the following methods: direct (observations) and indirect (talks and meetings about work with the technicians); analysis of documents on the previous norms concerning this work. The analysis dealt basically with the groups' language production. Some results can be highlighted: the development of this care activity implies intense mobilization of workers; the possibility of not assisting the mothers who arrive to have their babies seems to be more noxious to these technicians than to work with an overload of patients; the precarious conditions of work are producers of pathogenic suffering, once the pleasant and well-succeeded realization of this activity is hindered.
Neonatal Unit; nursing technicians; working conditions; care activity; maternity hospital