Abstract

REIS, Cristine Gabrielle da Costa dos et al. Palliative care in the context of the general hospital: challenges of comprehensive care. Rev. Subj. [online]. 2022, vol.22, n.1, pp. 1-14. ISSN 2359-0769.  http://dx.doi.org/10.5020/23590777.rs.v22i1.e12495.

Palliative care, as a proposal for comprehensive treatment, represents a challenge for its performance in the hospital context from the multiplicity of factors involved. The objective of this study was to characterize the institutional and relational dynamics of palliative care in a general hospital in southern Brazil. Ethnographic research was carried out through participant observation in the institution and registration in a field diary. Data were organized and analyzed based on Grounded Theory and the ATLAS. ti 7.5 software. A hospital routine was evidenced, crossed by the unpredictability of vital events, influenced by patient-family-staff interrelationships, observing the hospital corridors as a singular space made invisible by its protagonists, where both relational plots and professional conversations take place. Such plots, immersed in hospital functioning, highlight the challenges of comprehensive care in the general hospital since they affect how care is performed by professionals, as well as the reactions of patients and family members in the face of death and mourning. It is understood that, given the complexity that involves the general hospital, comprehensive care can be compromised since there is not always the necessary understanding for the development of such care. Therefore, the importance of recognizing the phenomena related to the experiences of illness, palliative care, death in the general hospital, and the visualization of their relationships with the complexity of the context is highlighted.

Keywords : palliative care; general hospitals; health professionals; health.

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