[What perspective do intensive care nurses have of their relationship with the relatives of a critical patient?].

Introduction and aim. Nursing professionals in intensive care units (ICU) face situations of uncertainty and anxiety, above all in patients' relatives. In the literature, we find that the way in which the family and their needs are valued by professionals in the unit is not very systematical, even though there are instruments that have been validated for this purpose. Therefore, we decided to value what perspective ICU nurses have of the relationship they establish with patients' relatives, in order to find possible explanations for this situation. Material and methods. A qualitative study with a critical-social orientation. This was carred out in three ICUs in three state hospitals in Mallorca. Research techniques: 8 observations of the visit of relatives to the unit and 6 semi-structured interviews with nurses from the three hospitals. The transcripts of the interviews were analysed and codified in significance units. Sources and methods were triangulated.Results. Categories of the relationship process: 1) who the social actors are; 2) what the actions of the nurses with respect to the relatives are; 3) what the relationships are like between both; and 4) expectations of the nurses regarding this relationship.Conclusions. a) It is necessary to establish quality standards for attending the relatives of critical patients. b) Continuous nursing training is necessary in order to provide emotional support to families and to protect nurses from the added stress involved in providing this emotional support.