Abstract

EMER, Marceli; MOREIRA, Mariana Calesso  and  HAAS, Sílvia Abduch. Child and the imminence of death of a progenitor: the challenge of parent's in communicating bad news. Rev. SBPH [online]. 2016, vol.19, n.1, pp. 21-40. ISSN 1516-0858.

Patient care during an end-of-life process should be extended to the family members, which are also suffering from the impact of the announced loss. This research had the main objective of understanding how does the communication of bad news work with children who goes through the experience of illness and the imminence of death of a progenitor. This is a qualitative and exploratory research, performed by using semi-structured interview attended by the child's healthy progenitor. Data obtained were examined by the content analysis method. Four participants were interviewed and selected according to the predefined inclusion criteria. The main result highlighted is the concealment of truth to the child regarding the information of the parent's imminent death. This concealment is supported by factors that are interrelated. These factors concern to fantasy that concealing a painful truth will provide protection to the child and, besides that, show that the rejection of the adult regarding the death of the partner and its underestimation with respect to the cognitive and emotional capacities of children also corroborate for the maintenance of silence.

Keywords : palliative care; death; communication; children.

        · abstract in Portuguese     · text in Portuguese     · Portuguese ( pdf )