Abstract
Objective: To investigate how nurses should act in the care of the critically ill patient, considering the relevance of the nursing unit in adult intensive care units. Method: It is an integrative review of the literature, descriptive, to have as a unit of analysis the information related to the humanized care of a therapy directed to the critical patient. Results and Discussion: According to the information found in the bibliographic review, it can be verified that some nursing professionals do not know the national humanization policy. With regard to the understanding of humanized care, it has been observed that professionals are helpful and caring is gaining emphasis, such as involvement, safety and accessibility. And, what stressors can be diminished by nursing. All the articles used in this review dealt with the difficulty of applying humanized care to severe patients by nursing professionals Conclusion: Based on the literature review, it was observed that some nursing professionals are unaware of the National Humanization Policy, it was observed that professionals who demonstrate some degree of knowledge present difficulties to implement this, however, believe that humanized care contributes significantly to patient recovery.