Introduction:

The nursing process is a systematic instrument structured in five stages, which has the purpose of directing nurses in the practice of care for assisted clients. Given this, it is essential that the process be applied effectively during hospital care.

Objective:

To know the applicability of the nursing process on patients in the medical and surgical clinics of a general hospital in Maranhão.

Methods:

Qualitative, descriptive and cross-sectional study carried out, during October-November 2019, at the General Hospital of Bacabal, Brazil. The population was twenty nurses, twelve of whom were included for meeting the criteria. A semistructured interview about the nursing process was conducted. The objective data were tabulated in Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and presented in simple percentages. To analyze the collected data, Bardin's content analysis was used.

Results:

Most of the nurses were aware of the nursing process, as well as its importance. However, its implementation occurs, in part, due to the various difficulties faced in the nursing routine, which reflects the need to provide measures that can substitute for these deficiencies.

Conclusion:

The failures in the application of the nursing process may be related to accumulation of services, professional devaluation and the absence of a specific instrument for this purpose. All this makes it necessary to develop strategies in conjunction with management, in order to improve working conditions, train nurses and develop a standardized instrument to facilitate its use.

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