Produ？？o científica brasileira de enfermagem em terapia intensiva de 1995 a 2004

objective: to investigate nursing research in critical care in brazil from 1995 to 2004. methods: selected articles from ten brazilian scientific journals were analyzed regarding frequency of publication, authorship, research methodology, topic, and study population. results: among 3464 published articles, only 97 (2.8%) were related to critical care. a great part of these studies (38.1%) was conducted by master's or doctoral graduate students. almost a half of the studies (49.5%) used qualitative design. main topics studied consisted of the professional performance of worker involved on care (23.7%) and emotional aspects of nursing care (21.6%). iatrogenic occurrences also emerge as an important topic. nursing team was a common sample (50.0%) of the studies. conclusion: nursing research in critical care in brazil although incipient remains stable in the last two decades.