[Basic human needs of nursing professional: situations of (dis)satisfaction at work].

Care is associated with the nursing actions considering, above all, a group of needs of the nursing team. The objectives of this study were: to characterize situations of (dis) satisfaction of the nursing team at work and analyze their possible implications. Maslow's theory of basic human needs was used to understand the motivational factors, and a qualitative methodology was used applying quantitative techniques. The method consisted of participant observation with registers on a filed diary associated to the application of a questionnaire on 18 participants from the nursing team of a Public Hospital in Rio de Janeiro. The study indicates that the basic needs of the nursing team are compromised, especially safety and physiological needs, which are the most primary. The compromising of the subjects' primary needs implies health hazards and reduced work performance in hospital settings.