Cuidados paliativos

: o conforto do doente paliativo

Abstract

Due to an exponential increase in chronic diseases associated with increased life expectancy and hence the formation of a very aged population, the long-term care and the philosophy of palliative care on quality of nursing care becomes essential. My choice for an internship in this area to complete the MSc in Palliative Care, relates to this fact. This paper exposes all the objectives, activities and interventions developed during the internship, as well as the obstacles, difficulties and also, the strategies used to overcome them. A large part of the internship took place at the Hospital Pedro Hispano Support Team in Palliative Care-hospital and in home care in the same team in partnership with the Centro de Saúde de Leça da Palmeira. This experience was enriched with an internship at Centre de la Salud Humanización of Religious Camilos in Madrid, which allowed the comparison of another reality in palliative care. This report reflects all my motivation, commitment and expectation to be able to improve the quality of nursing care provided to palliative patient, taking into account all their vulnerability through the phase where it is. Throughout this document, reporting the goals that I set out in the various fields of the internship, as well as obstacles and difficulties in implementation. I describe and realize some of the care and skills, as well as the reality of the households, the needs of patients, communication established, symptomatic control and some critical reflections on the care provided. I felt the need to prepare a guide to ease the admission of the patient and a case study. From the intense and profound reflection on the work I developed, I found that the general interest for this area type of care has increased, however, gaps remain in the training of health professionals, and specific training will be needed to achieve excellence of care in this.

Date of Award	2013
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Margarida Vieira (Supervisor)