The Social representations of medical clinic nurses on oncology palliative care: a procedural approach

Abstract

Introduction: this study refers to a research process about the social representation of nurses on oncological palliative care. Objectives: to analyze and describe the social representations of nurses on the patient in oncological palliative care and to discuss the implications of these findings in these patients’ daily assistance. Materials and methods: A qualitative study, based on the Social Representations Theory, conduced with 15 nurses that worked in the Clinical Service through semistructured interviews, analyzed through the thematic content analysis. Results and discussion: The data show that the content of the social representation of those nurses was predominantly negative, through the terms death, finitude, terminal illness, pain and suffering that are against to the philosophy of palliative care. Conclusion: training activities in the area and expand of the discussion on the topic are required in an attempt to promote improvements in the care provided to those patients.