PARTICULARITIES OF THE HOME-CARE DURING THE PROCESS OF DEATH: THE EXPERIENCE OF FAMILY CARETAKERS

• Autor(a) principal: Marques, Soraia Matilde
• Data de Publicação: 2009
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Cogitare Enfermagem (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://revistas.ufpr.br/cogitare/article/view/15637
• topic: Cuidado; Família; Cultura; Doença terminal; Morte; Care; Family; Culture; Terminal illness; Death; Cuidado; Familia; Cultura; Enfermidad terminal; Muerte

It is an ethnographic study aiming to understand the experience of family members who were responsible forthe daily home-care of an end-stage patient. It included 16 female participants, ages varying from 29 and 83 years old, allof them residing in Belo Horizonte. All patients were under the care of the participants by the time the interviews tookplace. All patients were also at the end-stage of the illness, under peculiar circumstances. Data collection happenedthrough observation of the participants, according to Leininger, associated with the ethnographic interview as proposedby Spradley. The data analysis followed Leininger’s proposition of ethnographic research. 14 (fourteen) cultural descriptorswere found and they lead to the identification of the following headings: becoming a caretaker; understanding thevicissitudes of the home-care and experiencing the lonely care. These headings worked as a background to the centraltheme: learning through the experience of pain and death. Reflecting upon the interviews, the headings and the centraltheme were essential for a deeper understanding of the beliefs, values, feelings and needs of the family member as acaretaker. The lack of knowledge about the proper care to be offered comes from the fact that the health system andprofessionals do not include family members in the nursing process, thus contributing to the great deal of difficulty facedby the family when the patient is in a home-care situation. However, all the participants showed motivation to overcomethe difficulties faced due to lack of technical knowledge and personal limitations. Adapting the patient’s care to a possiblehuman and economical conditions offered the caretakers a chance of total dedication putting themselves on second placein an attempt to minimize the pain of those who were experiencing an end-stage illness.