Palliative Care in the Intensive Care Unit and in Emergencies: Perception of the Multidisciplinary Team in the São Francisco Valley
Palliative care is an approach that consists of assistance provided by a multidisciplinary team, aiming to offer quality of life to patients facing life-threatening illnesses, with no prognosis of cure, and their families. Thus, the objective of this study is to evaluate the perception of the multidisciplinary team in the emergency and ICU departments of the São Francisco Valley regarding palliative care. For this purpose, a descriptive, exploratory, qualitative-quantitative research methodology was adopted. The data were collected through a semi-structured questionnaire consisting of six objective questions, applied via the Google Forms platform to the multidisciplinary teams of hospitals located in the cities of Juazeiro-BA and Petrolina-PE, which make up the São Francisco Valley. The study included the participation of 72 health professionals, of which 45.85% (33) were nurses, 31.94% (23) were physiotherapists, 20.83% (15) were doctors, and 1.39% (1) were not specified. The majority of participants (39.7%) stated that they did not receive sufficient training on palliative care during their undergraduate studies. Additionally, 37.0% of professionals do not feel capable, and 34.2% feel very little capable of communicating bad news. However, the majority (58.9%) consider themselves able to provide palliative care from the emergency department to terminally ill patients in the ICU. It was concluded that there is a deficit in professional training regarding palliative care, indicating unpreparedness in providing quality assistance by the multidisciplinary team. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct training that allows discussions on this topic in the workplace, aiming to ensure quality of life and assistance for patients and their families, as well as to promote continuous education systems and the strengthening of specializations in palliative care.
