Communication with dying patients – perception of intensive care units nurses in Brazil

Abstract

Although the number of interviewed nurses in our study was small, the results corroborated the findings of other studies and revealed an educational aspect in nursing training that deserves serious consideration.

Patient and family involvement in adult critical and intensive care settings: a scoping review

“…Two other studies employ interviews and focus groups with nurses to explore their perspectives on communication with patients, and patient participation in decision making . In Trovo de Arujo and Da Silvia's study exploring 10 Sao Paulo nurses’ perceptions of communication with patients, the authors find that while nurses’ valued communication with patients as a therapeutic resource in palliative care, they felt ill prepared to communicate with dying patients.…”

An integrative review of supports, facilitators and barriers to patient‐centred nursing in the intensive care unit

“…This acted as a barrier to maintenance of patient identity as the nurse often did not know the patient's psychosocial background, beliefs and values. Communication issues compounded patient and family anxiety (Crocker & Scholes, ; Gross, ; Slatore et al., ; Trovo De Araujo, Paes Da Silva, & Geraldo Da Silva, ). As in other care areas, language barriers could also make it difficult for nurses to interact with their patient, gain insight into their patient's identity and develop a therapeutic relationship (Hoye & Severinsson, ; McGrath, ; Yang & McIlfatrick, ).…”

“…The biomedical discourse within the ICU impacted the nurses’ professional and compassionate presence: “I think that at (sic) ICU we end up being too technical … what we usually see is that the nursing team tends to distance itself” (Trovo De Araujo et al., , p. 146). Additionally, the strict standardised protocols of ICU sometimes did not account for patient's individual needs; a Swedish study exploring prolonged weaning from ventilation found it important to structure individualised treatment plans and goals to ensure patient identity was preserved (Cederwall et al., ).…”

Nursing work: challenges for health management in the Northeast of Brazil

“…In Brazil, training is a critical concern for healthcare management, not because of retention, but because training is becoming an ever more important motivator for nurse professionals and a key factor in the search to improve hospital efficacy, especially in terms of the quality of patient care. Several papers identify a need for specialised on-going development requirements for nurses in Brazil, such as dealing with dying patients, dealing with alcohol and drug abuse and continuing education and training (Villa et al 1999, Pillon et al 2003, de Araujo & da Silva 2004. The need for research on training for nurses has been highlighted (Carlisle et al 2011).…”