RESUMO
We intend to present some aspects related with the coping process in a person with chronic pain. The presence of pain has implications in daily life activities, such as eating, drinking, sleeping or selfcare. Pain can unchain responses in the person, namely depression, anxiety, isolation, fear of pain and pessimistic thoughts. Thus we verify that in his/her adaptation process to the condition of chronic pain the person needs to integrate some strategies to manage his/her day by day activities. In this article we try to systematize the process where nurses based on Lazarus and Folkman's Model: Stress processing and Coping, can systematize care. In fact, nurses try to help people in the identification of their personal resources as well as the socio-ecological resources. The sense the care process has as a goal is the improvement of the quality of life through pain control and the person's adaptation of his/her condition of health, through development of his/her knowledge and capacities to use the resources, be they personal as instrumental or social.