Since 1989, as supervising nurse, I have been teaching the Surgical Intensive Care team, at the Cantonal University Hospital of Geneva, about the concept of stress and adaptation. An assessment of the lectures has confirmed, beyond field observation, the necessity of this course, the development of the representation of stress among the nursing staff. As a result of the lectures, there have been changes in the organisation of the work in and around the ward (visiting hours, noise, colours of the rooms...), the interpersonal relationships, and in the psychological care of patients (transplants for example). This approach, is based on the idea of D. Chalvin: "The human person is a systematic whole: change the faintest element of his life, or even a quite common behaviour, and it will have most significant consequences on the entire physiological, emotional and mental system".