Nursing in urgency and emergency: between the pleasure and suffering

The work in a hospital's emergency care sector has the potential of generating pleasure and/or suffering to nursing professionals. Objective: To verify what factors lead pleasure and suffering to the nursing professionals who work in an emergency department and hospital emergency, and their defensive strategies. Method: Qualitative, descriptive study, case study; Data collection was carried out by semi-structured interviews and observation. The analysis was given by analysis of Bardin content, and based on the work psychodynamics. Results: Three categories met: 1. pleasure category; 2. suffering category; 3. defensive strategies category: individual and collective. Conclusion: Behavior changes may provide a better way to handle and transform the factors causing suffering and enhance the feelings of pleasure