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Based on a study conducted among elderly dependent people living in public nursing homes in France, this article explores the different experiences of relationships between nurses and patients. In a context of a lack of staff and streamlining of care, the interactions between patients and nurses are reduced to mere routine activities, which runs counter to the ideal of personal autonomy. The article discusses the repercussions of this form of relationship on the experience of loneliness among elderly patients. The patients with the most solid personal resources can mobilize them in order to gain a favorable position with the nurses and thus protect themselves from loneliness. The patients whose resources are more mixed are also less satisfied with their relationship with staff. Their exchanges lead to a series of identitary frustrations and contributes to a heightened sense of loneliness. Finally, for the poorest and most isolated patients, their relationship with nurses has a strong influence on their identity and accentuates their dehuminzation.