Contribuciones de la Psicología al manejo interdisciplinario del paciente en Unidad de Cuidados Intensivos (UCI)

Introduction: Intensive Care Units are highly stressful for patients, family and the healthcare team. Fear, loneliness and loss of autonomy are common conditions that confront UCI actors with vulnerability, suffering and death. Objectives: to present and argue the reasons why the psychologist's participation is relevant, important and indispensable in the interdisciplinary work of the ICU. Methodology: the empirical evidence was obtained from scientific articles extracted from specialized databases. Results: Be in the ICU is highly stressful and potentially traumatic because patients are faced with life threatening situations and confronted with death. Conclusions: Evidence on the involvement of psychologists in the ICU is low. The psychologist, as a behavior researcher, can contribute actively in the assessment and handling of critically ill patients, their families and members of the healthcare team.