Abstract
Objective: To raise scientific evidence in the literature from 2014 to 2018, on the experience of nurses working in intensive care units in the face of the death process. Methods: This is an integrative literature review, carried out in the databases LILACS, SCIELO and BDENF, using the descriptors: Intensive Care Unit; Nursing; Death; and Die. Results: The final sample consisted of 13 articles. Two thematic categories were identified: 1) The inversion of the natural order of the life cycle: the nurses experience the process of death in the ICU with sadness, impotence, anguish and shock, however need to be strong in front of the family in order to accept them and Comfort them; 2) When death wins the assistive technology: It is an event that hurts nursing because, despite the use of all the resources that the unit possesses, nothing is worth to these patients, remaining nursing care of comfort and relief. Final considerations: The experience of nurses in the process of death is permeated with feelings of anguish, stress, impotence and care for the patient before, during and after death, as well as comfort and support for relatives and their team.