Concepções e desafios para a organização dos cuidados paliativos no contexto da estratégia saúde da família em um município do nordeste do Brasil

Abstract

Palliative Care is part of the activities and actions of Primary Health Care and must contemplate the continuous and integrated care offered in the scope of the Health Care Network. The interest for the theme arose from professional experience during performance as a nurse in a basic unit of family health in the second largest city of the state of Rio Grande do Norte in northeastern Brazil. This is a qualitative research, of the case study type, of exploratory and descriptive nature, with the intention of understanding which knowledge, practices, support and difficulties the professionals/managers face in the practice of palliative care in their daily work. The research was carried out with 15 professionals, 11 of whom are assistance professionals and 4 management professionals. The method of analysis of the empirical data obtained from the interviews was the content analysis, based on 3 thematic categories: a) Understanding of palliative care (divided into two subcategories: a.i) What is palliative care; and a.ii) The benefits of palliative care and for whom it is intended); 2) The knowledge and practice of palliative care in the reality of the ESF; 3) Supports and challenges for a palliative care practice in the ESF. It was observed that the limitations of resources, management support, training and knowledge on the theme end up reducing the offer of this service in the municipality in question. These observations are, therefore, sensitive indicators of problems of access to palliative care and, consequently, of the integrality of care. For palliative care to be produced in Primary Health Care, it is essential that the team has the support, knowledge, skills, attitudes, and makes use of instruments that enable the materialization of this practice within the primary health care team. In this sense, given the results found, there is an urgent need for the structuring of a care policy that contemplates palliative care in the municipality.