A consulta telefónica como intervenção de enfermagem ao doente e família com dor crónica, numa unidade de dor

Abstract

The telephone communication emerges as an approach resource and quality of care to the patient/family by the health team, in a subjective area like pain relief and chronic pain control.

The aim was to understand the implicit caring process of telephone consultation to the patient/family with chronic pain in the Pain Unit of Hospital Garcia de Orta in order to enhance new promoting measures of decision-making of the health team.

The study methodology exhibits the characteristics of a case study. The data were obtained through the analysis of records of telephone consultations, participant observation and formal interviews with 4 nurses, 103 patients and relatives, and informal interviews to 3 doctors.

The results allow knowing the level of satisfaction of patients and families as well as to know the main intentions which lead them to call the Pain Unit: the management of the therapeutic regimen and the problems arising from disease or therapy.

We conclude that the telephone consultation is mentioned as a very important resource to the patient/family, being emphasized the requirement inherent to the process of care in a kind of non face-to-face interaction. This requirement is located in the articulation of virtual information circuit between the patient, the nurse and doctor and the feedback to the patient.