Fundamentos do agir do enfermeiro face aos problemas éticos de início de vida

Abstract

This thesis, integrated in the PhD in Nursing, in the area of “History and Philosophy ofNursing”, aims to understand the fundamentals of nurse’s actions used by nurses in theface of ethical problems at the beginning of life. The study is within the scope of ethicaldecision and seeks to know its foundations.Thus, in order to achieve this goal, we designed a qualitative study, of a descriptivetype, and we used semi-structured interviews to collect material from 26 nurses whodevelop their professional practice in the context of early life. These interviews weresubmitted to content analysis, more specifically to categorical analysis. Nunes (2006)and Deodato (2014), previously listed categories of ethical problems and some of thosecategories were also identified in this work. Numerous new categories have alsoemerged in this investigation, such as: Dealing with miscarriage of desired pregnancy,Need for psychological comfort, Pregnancy of minors, Serious malformations detectedat birth, Consent regarding care during childbirth, Identification of an ethical problem,Nurses social recognition and Non-involvement of the person during childbirth. Theremaining categories were adapted from previous knowledge (Nunes, Deodato),adapting the definition of ethical problem in nursing activity, of Deodato (2014).In the second part of this work, we intend to know how nurse’s deal in the face ofethical problems related to the beginning of life, starting from Deodato, who hadalready identified these fundamentals for the nurse's ethical decision, in general.However, in this study, new categories emerged such as “personal foundation”,“spiritual foundation” and those foundations related to the “available resources”. The “ethical” foundations (Deodato) are the most interiorized in their actions, but the“deontological foundations” (Deodato) also appear with great relevance, which leads usto conclude that nurses also integrate this knowledge in their clinical action. The “professional” fundamentals, and others that we present in the proper place, also appearin this investigation. Taking the results into account, we conclude that nurses faceseveral ethical problems, some of which have an ineffable impact on their professionalperformance. Considering these results and the intensity with which they areexperienced, there are also numerous grounds for the decision to be taken.We seek to disseminate this study and its results, contributing to help the decisionmaking process in this field that at a first glance is an area of hope and joy, but alsohides behind this evidence countless situations of suffering for all involved.viiThus, we hope to fulfill the objective of contributing to the knowledge that helps nursesto decide in the best way. Being aware that more interviews, more geographic locationsor a more diverse sample in relation to gender could, eventually, give otherperspectives, however we consider that we have reached the proposed objectives.

Date of Award	26 Apr 2022
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Sérgio Deodato (Supervisor)