Objective

To analyze the feelings of nurses confronting death, according to the Dejourian psychodynamic.

Methods.

This is a qualitative, exploratory study, analyzed, interpreted and discussed emphasizing the suffering and pleasure, proposed by Dejours.

Results.

Participants were 11 nurses, mostly woman, single, white, Catholic, between two sixteen years of profession. The analysis of responses allowed finding some driving and potentiating factors of feelings of pleasure and suffering. It was identified as pleasure: feeling of accomplishment, comfort and relief; as suffering, sadness, frustration, difficulty with grief, impotence and incapacity. They also have defense mechanisms to prevent suffering, as not to think about suffering and death, taking refuge in work.

Conclusion

The factors related to the pleasure and the pain of Nurses when facing death were identified. Therefore, education is necessary regarding the process of death in academic training and studies that approach the nurse to this natural process.

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