Scenario: Technological advances have contributed to the improvement of health
care, with an emphasis on critical units, particularly in intensive care services. This
sector for the care of critically ill or at-risk patients requires uninterrupted assistance,
in addition to specialized equipment and human capital. However, it is a constant
challenge for members of the intensive care unit team to humanize the provision of
care. Objective: This research is the result of the need for a reflection on the
humanization of care in intensive care from the subjective perspectives of the
subjects under study in order to understand the experience lived by doctors, as well
as the difficulties faced in this context in the intensive care unit of a public hospital in
Pernambuco. Method: For this purpose, the method used was a qualitative research,
which had as a research instrument the semi-structured reflective interviews
conducted with doctors working in the intensive care unit of one of the largest public
hospitals in Pernambuco. The comprehensive analysis of the phenomenon under
investigation it was carried out through the Analysis of the Situated Phenomenon,
structured by Martins and Bicudo. Results and Discussion: In the analysis of data
from professionals, four thematic categories emerged: 1) Humanization in health: a
concept under construction; 2) The dialectic expressed in the doctors' discourse on
humanization and dehumanization; 3) Between theory and existing praxis: daily
difficulties in the humanization process in the intensive care unit; and 4) The
confrontation between medical training and humanization. With a better
understanding of humanized practices in health care, the aim is to transform the
knowledge obtained from research into social practice.
