Estratégias de coping utilizadas pelos enfermeiros para lidar com o processo de morrer

Death is a natural and inevitable event, which is still very mysterious and defies human omnipotence. Objective: verify the coping strategies of nurses to deal with the dying process, and if there is an association between the coping strategies and the sociodemographic characteristics of the study population. Methodology: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study with a quantitative approach developed in Cardiothoracic In-tensive Care Unit, Emergency and Palliative Care Unit of two hospitals in the north of Portugal. With the application of a questionnaire ”The Nurse towards Death” between the months of June and December 2017.Results: we found that 49.4% of the sample are nurses from the ER, 39% from the CTICU and only 11.7% from the PC. The most used coping strategy with 26% is in free time forgetting the profession and dedicating itself to pleasurable activities with people with whom it has affective ties. We also found “by professional performance I can do something for people in difficult times” and “I developed a philosophy of life that allows me to give a meaning to life, suffering and the process of death” with the same percentage of 23.4%Conclusion: The most used coping strategies are to dedicate themselves to leisure activities in leisure time, forgetting about professional activity, professional performance, and the nurse feels that he can do something for people in difficult times and develop a philosophy of life that allows giving a meaning to life, suffering and the process of death.We verified that there is an association between coping strategies and the sociodemographic characteristics of the study population, namely age and years of professional practice in the service where they are.