Os cuidados paliativos no âmbito dos cuidados de saúde primários: as intervenções dos enfermeiros*

Abstract

Since the Reform of the Primary Health Care is being carried out and it is expected that the Palliative Care Units, level I and II, will soon be put into effect, it has become pertinent to understand how the nurses of the Primary Health Care respond to the needs of someone who is in intense suffering near the end of their life, so that the existent resources can be better adapted to the needs and so that the quality of the response might also be improved.

As a contribution to attain this goal a semi-structured, exploratory-descriptive investigation with a qualitative approach was planed using the interview as a technique of data gathering. From among the different objectives that guided this study, we focused on the palliative actions that the referred nurses provide to the clients according to the conditions referred to and also on the analysis of their views concerning the care provided and the results that were obtained.

According to these results we can assume that, in the present situation, the Health Center to which these nurses belong does not offer the required resources for them to respond in a thorough and adequate way to the multiple and complex needs they are faced with.