Percepção de profissionais de saúde brasileiros acerca da morte: revisão integrativa.

Abstract

Deeply Knowing the death and all the elements that surround it should be in the interest of each health professional, so that it can be possible appreciate the comfort o and the death with dignity of the patient without feeling guilty or overwhelmed by negative feelings. Thereby, this study aims to analyze the perception of Brazilian health rofessionals about the end of the life. The integrative review was used as a method of ganization and systematization of knowledge. The research was conducted on November, 2014 in LILACS database through the descriptors: nursing, doctors, perception, attitude to death, death and euthanasia in Portuguese and in English in PubMed. The results were obtained after careful analysis of 15 selected articles. The evaluation of the studies allowed the detection of five perceptions towards death: life’s stage, technicist conception, passing to a better place, freedom from suffering and unexpected interruption of life. It was noticed that nurses are professionals who have more comprehensive understanding about death as a multifaceted event. On the other hand most doctors have a vision focused on technicist and biological ideals. The few studies conducted with health professionals from other areas make it impossible to generalize the results and fosters the need for more studies in the area. Although there is a comprehensive understanding by some professionals, they still have difficulties in dealing with the dying process in their daily lives. Therefore, there is also necessary further discussion about the subject in the academic space and in daily practice, aiming to improve the understanding and the health professionals’ attitude towards death.