The nurse’s role in the humanization of care in the hospital

Abstract

Humane care in health services within the hospital is the main target of health policies of Brazilian government which try to spread a new culture in humane assistance. Current paper, involving a descriptive research coupled to a qualitative approach, investigates the cares which are linked to the presuppositions of palliative care employed by nurses in their tasks. Nine nurses who work in hospitals and with a Master’s degree in Nursing from the State University of Maringá, obtained in 2009-2010, were interviewed. The main question was: “Which care do you consider important when assisting terminal patients and their families in the hospital environment?” From the analysis two themes emerged: ‘Taking care of the patient in a humanized way’ and ‘Taking care of the family in a humanized way’. Current investigation showed that palliative care within humanization in the hospital environment may go beyond the technological border by which the patients and their family are transformed into identity-less objects of care.