The author investigated the meaning of the daily work with the death on the perspective of the professionals that integrate a team of heart and lung revival from a university hospital. To belong to this team implies somehow, to live together with the death with an explicit objective of reverting it. The literature evidences the concern of several authors with these professionals, considering their tendency of wearines. The study was developed according to the methodology of phenomenological investigation and was carried out through recorded interviews with all members of the referred team. The analyzed data allowed authors to evidence that the professionals perceive the work on a functionalist perspective, where the time is revealed as a decisive factor against death; it is a work permeated by the success/failure and difficulties; it generates a posture of omnipotence/ impotence and requires a confrontation. They also evidenced waste, feelings of impotence and of failure when the reanimation is not possible. They still reinforce the concern about daily exhausting work and the advise for schools and institutions of health to develop channels for the evaluation of weariness and for the new valuation of the health professionals role.
death; reviving teams; occupational health