Caminho de esperança

: o adolescente-família portador de doença crónica

Abstract

Upon reflection on the adolescent’s adaptable process to a chronic, disabling or of poor prognosis illness, it is not only essential to understand the perception that each adolescent has in what it regards his/her illness, but also to understand in which way the illness interferes in his/her development process and in the resolution of the essential adolescence tasks. The chronic disease represents a major stress factor for the youngster and the family. Thus, its consequences will depend upon the way the adolescent and the family, with the help of the health care professionals, will be able to understand, interpret, evaluate and confront the disease situation and the suffering and physical limitation experiences that come of it. The professional acting of nurses, be it in the Primary Health Cares, be it in the Differentiated Cares, should constitute a driving force of well-being and hope, making it necessary to identify the interventions which the nurse should adopt as hope promoting. Such interventions that promote support on a social, emotional, learning and instrumental level contribute to the development of abilities which allow a good adaptable process to each one’s health situation, promote hope and decreases suffering. Hope is indispensable to resilience, which may be defined as the ability that allows the individual, group or community to prevent, minimize or overcome the distressing effects of adversities and as one of the human beings main emotions, strengthens his well-being and quality of life. It arises as a powerful “coping” strategy aiming at the promotion and maintenance of health, becoming an intrinsic strength to human beings. This report has the chief goal of describing and critically analysing the personal and professional competences as well as the developed activities which aim at the promotion of hope in the adolescent and the family of the chronic disease bearer. It arises as the consequence of an apprenticeship project which was implemented in three modules, distributed by two health institutions, namely the Direcção Geral de Saúde, (General Health Department) and Dona Estefânia Hospital. The adopted methodology was the descriptive, analytical and reflexive one, which was based on the making of a reflexive portfolio that grounded the developed activities. Illness, hospitalization and death mean suffering for the adolescent and family, so it is important that the nurse is attentive and hope promoting. The fact that the nurse believes in the solving of problems and feels hopeful, is essential to make the teenager and family have the same kind of positive approach to the situation

Date of Award	Feb 2011
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Lília Rosa Alexandre Vara (Supervisor)