title: [A team seen by a nurse].
abstract: In the initial phase, nurses perceive the person in a coma only as a physical body. Because his feelings and his intelligence are deeply hidden, great is the temptation to see him only as a body. Only when the family is allowed to play its role with the patient, will he be treated with greater care. Nurses have to listen to the family giving informations concerning the patient. The family alone will be able to show how to establish a normal and personalized relationship with the patient. He will then no longer be a passive subject upon which technicians act, but a human being to whom everyone shows respect in every daily dealing. This more human way to care about patients means that nurses are ready to question to some extent their own behaviour. It is indeed a matter of answering personal needs rather than imposing inappropriate totalitarian solutions prepared once for all, for everybody. We all share some responsibility in the quality of the life to come of these patients.
authors.affiliation: Département d'anesthésiologie, Centre hospitalier régional et universitaire, Strasbourg.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Muckensturm
mesh_terms: D003128:Coma / Q000451:nursing / Q000534:rehabilitation; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units; D009746:Nursing, Team; D011368:Professional-Family Relations; D011586:Psychology, Clinical
vernacular_title: Une équipe vue par une infirmière.