<b>Palliative care: reality or utopia?</b> - DOI: 10.4025/cienccuidsaude.v8i0.9740

Abstract

In the course of clinical practice, teaching and research, were have been motivated to produce this work, whose objective is to generate reflection about the hospice care directed to patients with no hope of cure and in the terminal phase of an illness. To facilitate understanding about palliative care, we have produced a history of its evolution since its inception in Europe, with Cicely Saunders, as well as an identification of the attributes of palliative care in Brazil and its practice in nursing. The preferential scenario is in the home, where the patient and his family become a care unit and are considered in their entirety. Control of pain, preparation for death, effective communication and the search for orthothanasia are the goals of the interdisciplinary team. Despite the fact that care is the essence of Nursing, palliative care is incipient in our practice. It is important that this philosophy be incorporated into our practice so that we may better participate in and sensitize the care of the dying patient, humanizing him.