Performance of the primary care nursing team in palliative care: the perspective of families
Abstract
Objective: To explore families’ perspectives on the performance of the primary care nursing team in palliative care. Methodology: A qualitative, descriptive study. Data were collected in 2021 through semi-structured interviews with six families who received palliative care in Basic Health Units in a municipality in the interior of Rio Grande do Sul. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Results: Three themes were identified: Families’ perceptions of nursing care, which address how nursing care in palliative care is delivered; Factors influencing families’ perspectives, highlighting changes related to the pandemic, care centered on medical actions, care coordination by other services, and insufficient primary care; and Families’ perspectives on care, focusing on beliefs surrounding illness as well as aspects they consider necessary to improve care. Final considerations: Nursing performance is perceived as limited, revealing gaps in care due to staff shortages, the absence of home-based care by the team, and insufficient follow-up of families. However, this performance appears to be largely invisible due to the prominence of other services within the care network, with which there is weak coordination, compounded by precarious conditions for meeting palliative care demands.
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