ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To analyze the most frequent words in interviews given by nurses during the coronavirus pandemic. METHOD: This is a qualitative, exploratory, descriptive study, carried out with 45 interviews granted by nurses to newspapers of great circulation in Brazil and Portugal. The data were processed using the ATLAS.ti® software and analyzed using the word cloud tool. RESULTS: The seven most frequent words were: "home" (respect for isolation), "nurses" (valuing of the profession and structural problems), "patients/diseased" and "care" (referring to the severity of the disease), "family" (missing her own family/emotional stress) and "fear" (fear of contamination of oneself and others). FINAL CONSIDERATIONS: The word cloud revealed how straining nurses' experiences have been and reinforced the urgent need to rethink nursing work and the risks faced. Reflections like this contribute to the construction of more valued nursing and public policies for the protection of nurses.