Brazilian Health Professionals’ Perception about Death: An Integrative Review

Abstract

Introduction: Recognizing deeply the death and all the elements that surround it should be of interest to all health care professionals, so that this can appreciate the comfort and dignified death of the patient without feeling guilty or overwhelmed with negative feelings.Objective: Analyzing the perception of Brazilian health professionals about the terminally life. Method:It was used the integrative review for organization and systematization of knowledge. The research was conducted in November 2014, in the LILACS database, through descriptors: nursing, medical, perception, attitude towards death, dying and euthanasia in Portuguese and English in PubMed. The results were obtained after a thorough analysis of 15 selected articles.

Hospital Nurses’ Perception of Death and Self-Reported Performance of End-of-Life Care: Mediating Role of Attitude towards End-of-Life Care

“…It was also supported by a recent review on perceptions of death among Brazilian health professionals, revealing that health professionals, who think about death as a natural process of life, are more likely to have more positive attitudes towards alleviating patients' suffering [13,34]. On the other hand, some health professionals may be full of negativity resulting from unpreparedness in supporting the dying process of patients [31,39]. One study showed that positive attitudes towards EOL care for the dying is enhanced through actual caring for dying patients, which contribute to nurses' personal growth [29].…”