Nurse 's skills as facilitator on the family conferences in palliative care

• Autor(a) principal: Paiva, Ivo Cristiano Soares
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Outros Autores: Rocha, Ana Maria Neves
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://web.esenfc.pt/?url=HOBDB358
• topic: skills; Palliative Care; Family Conferences

Background: In Palliative Care (PC), the patient/family should be integrated in the discussion and execution of the advanced care plan1. In this context, the Familiar Conference (FC) appears as a structured meeting, that promotes the communication between the healthcare team and the patient/family1,2. The FC has guidelines of good practice2,3,4. Reviewing the literature, one can verify that the healthcare teams don't follow a structured model and the nurse have skills to facilitate their execution3,5,6. Objectives: Characterize the structures of the FC in PC; identify the skills of the nurse in the FC. Methods: An exploratory study, quantitative, observational, analytic and transversal, conducted from February 6th to April 6th of 2017 in four units of PC, in an accidental non-probabilistic sample. Application of the form of "Characterization of FC", created and submitted to facial and content validation, by FC and PC experts. The study was approved by the ethic committees of the referred institutions. Results: 94 FC were analyzed. 90,4% of the FC took between 18 and 54', with a median of 3 professionals and 2 family members present. The patient was present in 36,2% of the FC. In the FC characterization, one can identify that: 87,2% were planned and 62,8% took place in a reserved room/cabinet. In average, 3 objectives were addressed and in 84% there was consensual decision-making. The nurse was the professional more present, being in 98,2% of the FC; managing 60% of the cases, increasing the presence of members of the multidisciplinary team. As well, the nurse potentiated the holistic approach of the patient/family in the physical, psychosocial, spiritual and economic dimension, which is less observed in the remaining managers (doctor, psychologist and social assistant). Conclusions: The FC is a method that enhances the relation between the healthcare professional and the patient/family, which may contribute in PC to optimize the quality of the care provided5,7,8, hence we recommend its integration in the caring process. By being the professional more present and the responsible for the FC, the nurses have communication, relational and leadership skills that legitimize them to be the facilitator of the FC3,9,10,11.