Intensive Care Units (ICUs) are configured within advanced support as an area that
requires redoubled care and attention from nursing professionals so that they can be
aligned with the care and organization of services. Being a space that has high
technology equipment and patients in critical and complex health, it is necessary to
have a team within the hospital unit, trained with professionals specializing in the area,
having as members of the professional support team nursing professionals. Factors
that interfere with the health of nursing workers are related to inadequate working
conditions, long hours, excessive tasks, inadequate physical environment, among
others. Therefore, it is necessary to discuss and analyze the causes that affect the
health of these workers that culminate in a compromised state of health and with high
levels of occupational stress in them. This study aimed to describe the coping
strategies adopted by the ICU nursing staff, since occupational stress can lead to
several negative consequences for both staff and patients. This is an integrative
literature review, by searching specialized databases in national and international
publications indexed in the Virtual Health Library (VHL), Scientific Electronic Library
Online (SCIELO), Nursing Database (BDENF) and Medical Literature Analysis and
Retrieval System Online (MEDLINE), with the descriptors crossed as follows: “Critical
Care Nursing and Occupational Stress”; and “Intensive Care Units and Occupational
Stress and Psychological Adaptation”, selected from the consultation with the DeCS -
Descriptors in Health Sciences on the VHL website. The study sample consisted of
eight publications, and after thorough reading and analysis and categorization of the
articles, three categories were identified: “Individual and collective strategies for coping
with stress in the ICU”; “Problem control and resolution as facilitating strategies for
coping with stress” and “Challenges for the development of stress coping strategies
within the ICU's”. Occupational stress is, in the context of ICUs, a reality of serious
consequences related to the quality of care provided by the nursing staff, and there is
a need for the dissemination of knowledge about the use of coping strategies by
professionals. Although the use of these strategies is considered favorable to
professionals, it is worth noting that their improvement and development in the nursing
team needs to be the subject of further studies, since there was a shortage in
publications related to the theme. Interventions capable of directly implementing stress
coping strategies are necessary, given that the worsening of professional illness
affects both team dynamics and naturally debilitated patients.
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