Abstract

MENESES, Nayanne da Ponte; CASTELLI, Isabela  and  COSTA JUNIOR, Áderson Luiz. Brain death communication to family members: a survey with health professionals. Rev. SBPH [online]. 2018, vol.21, n.1, pp. 192-217. ISSN 1516-0858.

Communication of Brain Death (BD) of a patient to family members may include difficulties of understanding and is still often tied to the interview to obtain consent for the donation of organs and tissues. The aims of the study were: (a) to evaluate the perception of health professionals regarding the diagnosis of BD; (b) to identify the actual situation of how the communication of BD occurs to the relatives of a patient; and (c) to identify psychosocial variables of the professional-family relationship at the moment of the communication. Twenty professionals who had already made communications of BD to family members, of a total of 27 existing professionals, responded to a mid-structured interview itinerary, from January to June, 2017. Five content categories were generated: variables for approach; professional trajectory; explanation of the protocol and diagnosis of brain death; presentation; and setting of communication. Patient's age, previous knowledge of the patient's clinical status, emotional state and religious beliefs were some of the variables referred to as functionally related to conducting the interview to obtain consent to organ donation. Data obtained subsidize the indication of variables that should be considered more systematically for the BD communication.

Keywords : brain death; bad news communication; communication protocol.

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