A consciência da própria finitude em crianças com doença crônica: uma revisão integrativa

Abstract

This study sought to understand, through an integrative literature review, the relationship between chronic illness and awareness of one's own finitude in children, since the context of chronicity brings the topic closer to death based on the health risks involved and recurrent contact with the hospital environment, which is socially represented as a place to maintain life and at the same time a destination for death. To this end, it searched for scientific articles published in the virtual databases BVS (Virtual Health Library), PubMed and Redalyc, using the descriptors "child" AND "illness" AND "death" AND "psychology", in Portuguese, English and Spanish, published in the last five years (2018 to 2023). Out of a total of 707 results found, eight full articles were included in the integrative review. The results were then grouped into three categories of thematic analysis: "Psychosocial expressions of awareness of finitude in children with chronic illness", "Communication with the child about the limiting and/or life-threatening condition" and "Possibility of maintaining hope beyond the cure: life surviving the awareness of death". As the results were discussed, it was possible to observe a consensus in the literature reviewed regarding the signs of an awareness of finitude in children with chronic illness conditions and the need to discuss communicative approaches to the subject of death and to think about alternative ways of maintaining hope beyond a cure. Given the scant literature found, it is hoped that more studies in this area will be carried out