Experiences of the nursing personnel in charge of palliative care of critical and terminal patients
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Velarde García JF. Vivencias del personal de Enfermería en pacientes en situación crítica y terminal. Metas de Enferm sep 2012; 15(7): 56-60
Authors
Juan Francisco Velarde García
Position
Enfermero de la Unidad de Reanimación Postanestésica del Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón.
Contact address
C/ Carlos Solé, 40, 2º B. 28038 Madrid.
Contact email: juanfran.vega@hotmail.com
Abstract
Objective: to interpret and analyze the experiences of nursing personnel in a Post-anesthesia Recovery Unit at the Gregorio Marañón of Madrid teaching hospital (HGUGM) who administer palliative care to critical or terminal patients.
Methods: the epistemological option selected for the study is a qualitative, phenomenological-interpretative methodology with in depth semi-structured, individual, cross-sectional interviews, with a duration of 30-40 minutes. A multi-purpose sampling of nurses and nursing assistants, delimiting the sample size by the saturation of the collected data. The years of work experience in the unit was the sample selection criterion, differentiating three groups: less than 5 years, between 5-10 years and more than 10 years of experience. The interviews were transcribed using two computer programs: Express Scribe® and Dragon Naturally Speaking 10.0®. The contents were codified and analysed using the Colaizzi method.
Results: the units or categories of analysis generated during the investigation were: treatment failure, palliative care and barriers to its delivery, being able to distinguished in each of them various types of emotions and intrinsic and extrinsic factors that could condition the acceptance of failure and have an impact on the integrity and content of palliative care administered.
Conclusion: the experiences of professionals and nursing assistants may condition acceptance of failure, impacting on the integrity and content of palliative care; the greater the degree of acceptance of failure, the greater the coverage of care provided. The conditioning of palliative care is influenced by the sum of factors present in the perception of treatment failure and the existence of institutional, academic and clinical barriers.
Keywords:
intensive care; limitation of the therapeutic effort; nursing carepalliative care
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