O processo do morrer inserido no cotidiano de profissionais da saúde em Unidades de Terapia Intensiva

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to verify with health and nursing professionals, who work in intensive care units, their perceptions and attitudes about death and dying, and their coping strategies in daily professional life. Individual and semi-structured interviews were conducted. The data was subjected to qualitative analysis based on the identification of the categories: work time and age of the professionals, coping with death and work environment characteristics. The data pointed that the longer the professional has worked, the easier to deal with death. Regardless the age and the professional experience, death is considered more difficult to cope with when it regards a child or young patient under suffering or is victim of a tragic death. Dealing with death in the workplace brought about changes on a personal level on rethinking and valuing life, and the contact with their own families. Working in the ICU was characterized as tiring, being the subject of death rarely addressed in the workplace, either within the professionals’ family circle, or even during the undergraduate degree. It concludes on the importance of creating spaces within the hospitals where the experiences and difficulties faced by these workers in their daily life can be addressed.