Cuidados paliativos: compreensão de fisioterapeutas que atuam em unidade de terapia intensiva

Abstract

Objectives: Observe the perception of physiotherapists about palliative care in an Intensive Care Unit; list the difficulties and point out potentialities/obstacles regarding the physiotherapeutic care. Method: Study of a qualitative nature involving 11 physiotherapists from the Intensive Care Unit of a University Hospital in the city of João Pessoa-PB. A questionnaire with questions about palliative care developed by the researcher herself was used. The answers were analyzed through the Collective Subject Discourse technique. Results: The main ideas were: Understanding that palliative care seeks to offer quality of life, comfort and relief from suffering for incurable patients; acting in the perspective of orthothanasia; Importance of physical therapist in providing comfort; difficulties in decision making and adoption of strategies such as protocol development and continuing education. Conclusion: It was found that this subject is still poorly understood, even by professionals who deal with this reality on a daily basis, with a need to increase the research in this field in order to improve care.