Introduction:

A nursing intervention during extracorporeal circulation in cardiovascular surgery can reduce the occurrence of complications, the stay in intensive care units, in hospitals, and mortality. Care is offered by articulating the domains of care for people in critical condition established by Patricia Benner, the Nursing Care Process and taxonomies.

Objective:

To present the development of a nursing intervention during extracorporeal circulation.

Methods:

An experimental study was conducted, which included 159 people, divided into two groups, who attended the Cardiology Service of the Center for Medical and Surgical Research from January 2018 to January 2021. Groups were chosen using simple randomization (1:1). The first group was made up of 79 people, approached with the conventional procedure; and the second, by 80 people, attended with the nursing intervention designed by the research team. The results were compared and expressed in absolute numbers, percentages and mean.

Results:

Men predominated (79.7 %). The median age was 60 years. In the group to which the nursing intervention was applied, the occurrence of complications, the stay in Intensive Care Units, in hospitals, and mortality were reduced (p = 0.04).

Conclusions:

The implementation of the Nursing Intervention by the perfusionist nurse helped to improve the human responses of these people. The final results obtained showed their validity, as they showed the decrease in the onset of complications and, therefore, the reduction of ICU and hospital stay and mortality.