The nurse's challenge of communication in pediatric palliative care
Keywords:
Nurse, Children, Palliative care, Humanization.Abstract
Pediatric palliative care is a challenge, especially for nurses, as it requires emotional balance. This care begins at diagnosis and can be offered concurrently with therapy aimed at the underlying disease. This care must be based not only on the child, but also on the family, psychological and professional environment, establishing effective communication. The objectives of this study were to analyze the challenge of communication between nurses, patients and family members during pediatric palliative care, to identify the main challenges for nurses in communicating with patients and family members in pediatric palliative care, and to propose a model for an effective communication strategy between nurses, patients and family members in pediatric palliative care. This is an integrative, qualitative and descriptive literature review with a bibliographic search found in the Medline/Pubmed, LILACS, BDENF, BVS and Scielo databases over the last ten years between 2013 and 2023. The sample of results and discussion consisted of 11 publications, which showed that the challenge of communication is one of the greatest difficulties between nurses, patients and family members. Nurses are important professionals in palliative care for pediatric patients and communication is a daily challenge, as bringing the diagnosis of this care brings many doubts, pains and fears. Studies have shown that this communication can be effective and humanized when playful means such as therapeutic games are used as a way of easing this moment for patients and their families. There are many difficulties in communication between nurses, patients and family members in relation to paediatric palliative care, and this study has proposed using playful means to humanize and effectively care for this patient at a time when emotions are mixed with fear and doubts about the treatment.
