Objective:

To interpret the relationship between humanization and ethical sensibility with decision making by the health personnel working at Intensive Care Units (icu) in Bogotá and Cartagena, Colombia.

Materials and method:

Comprehensive and qualitative study. This work employed 3 data collection tools: semi-structured online interview, case analysis, and the participant observation-field diary dyad. Initially, coding, categorization, arrangement, and grouping of data were conducted (deductive categorical analysis); subsequently, discourse analysis and hermeneutics of ideas identified 2 emerging categories (inductive categorical analysis), namely: Faces in the ICU and Cultivation of professionalism.

Results:

Faces in the ICU revealed that, as a territory, ICUs are shaped by the interactions of subjectivities, roles, and expectations embodied by those who inhabit these places. Cultivation of professionalism, integral to individual's character, is expressed through virtuous practices and perfected by means of professional and personal experiences.

Conclusions:

The relationship between humanization and ethical sensibility and decision making in the ICU is influenced by the person's role, hierarchy, sex, tiredness, and moral distress experienced within the Unit. The development of professionalism is nurtured through the personal and professional experiences of healthcare workers in the intensive care setting, enabling them to understand and objectify the patient care experience and fostering the emergence of virtues such as compassion. Disparities in the expression of humanization, ethical sensitivity, and decision-making among healthcare personnel are primarily attributed to team hierarchy within the ICU, the level of proximity to the patient, and pre-established relationships.

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