Caracterização do trabalho em equipa nas Unidades de Cuidados Paliativos em Portugal

Introduction: Teamwork is one of the four pillars that the provision of Palliative Care stands for. It is consensual to the various associations that defend and support the ministration in this field, the importance of them being sustained by an interdisciplinary team, with high skilled professionals, theoretically and technically prepared to provide high quality services. Methods: The objective of this report includes the characterization of team work within inpatient units for palliative care in Portugal, and for that it was defined the following research question: How is working in teams in palliative care units in Portugal? Is a report transversal, descriptive and bservational. The sample obtained includes the healthcare professionals (n=171), in particular, nurses (n=125), doctors n=21), psychologies (n=9), spiritual assistants (n=6), social workers (n=5) and physiotherapists (n=5), to perform different roles in 14 units of palliative care between December 2010 and January 2011. The sample is probabilistic stratified based on the team in all inpatient units in palliative care. Results and conclusion: There are institutional and professional differences when it comes to the evaluation of team working. The professional category of nursing, in particular female gender, has the worst evaluation in the different areas of team working. Professionals and institutions have a common purpose and recognize the importance of the inclusion of family. Team meetings happen in different periods of time, it doesn’t include all the professionals and there are different opinions about its use and relevance. There are differences in the perception of collaboration and devaluation of some professional categories in relation to others. The communication and leadership have different professional and institutional analysis.