Abstract
Objective: To describe the profile of nursing professionals and caregivers of institutionalized elderly people and to understand the care for these elderly people, from the perspective of these professionals. Methods: This is an exploratory-descriptive study with quantitative and qualitative approaches, developed with health professionals nursing and caregivers of institutionalized elderly in 5 Long Term Care Institutions for the Elderly (ILPI's), located in the municipality of Divinópolis - Minas Gerais. A sociodemographic and health conditions questionnaire and a semi-structured script were used to collect data. Results: 36 professionals responsible for the care of the elderly participated in the study, mostly characterized by the female gender, aged between 31 and 49 years, professional category caregivers of the elderly and with good self-declared health condition. Two categories emerged from the discourse analysis: Care for the institutionalized elderly in the view of the elderly caregiver and the nursing team and Factors that influence the care for the institutionalized elderly. Conclusion: It allowed us to understand that care for the institutionalized elderly causes a mix of feelings in daily life caring.