Abstract:
Brain Death is a process that changes the anatomy and physiology of all organic systems. The nurse must pay attention to the care of the patient in brain death different from other moments, certain that it is no longer a simple care, but a specialized assistance. Objectives: to evaluate nurses' knowledge about brain death, to identify nurses' ability to perceive signs of brain death, and to analyze the nurses' ability to maintain brain death. Methodology: integrative review of the literature, by means of a bibliographical survey of electronic material in the Virtual Health Library (VHL) databases, in the databases: LILACS, BDEnf, MEDLINE and SCIELO, searching for national articles in the years 2007 to 2017. Results: we verified that 83% of the sample identified that the nurses have knowledge about the criteria of brain death and 17% of the sample showed that the nurses did not obtain necessary knowledge about the criteria of brain death. The analyzed articles highlight that there are triggering factors evaluated through signs and symptoms, so, after a descriptive analysis of the data found in 100% of the articles the need for clinical exams and complementary tests for diagnosis and the need for temperature verification and care of the corneas. Final considerations: it is the duty of nursing and its multiprofessional team to use learning resources in the work process in association with the population to contribute to the exchange of attitudes and awareness related to the donation process of organs and tissues, mainly through continuous education, with courses, training, lectures, specializations and health education campaigns to the population, emphasizing the importance of organ donation.
