Dados do Trabalho

Título

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CHARACTERISTICS OF HEALTH PROFESSIONALS AND RESPECT FOR THE AUTONOMY OF CANCER PATIENTS IN THE FINAL STAGE OF LIFE

Introdução

Between bioethical principles and the ability of professionals to recognize their decision-making capacity, there are factors and characteristics that contribute to this ability to recognize and respect the autonomy of patients.

Objetivo

To evaluate the characteristics of health professionals that are associated with respect for the autonomy of cancer patients in their final stages of life.

Método

Prospective, quantitative cross-sectional cohort, through an anonymous questionnaire, with hypothetical clinical cases based on real cases, where the characteristics of the healthcare professionals associated with respecting the autonomy of cancer patients in the final stage of life will be evaluated.

Resultado

151 (94.37%) of the professionals participated in the survey. 57 (37.8%) showed paternalistic decisions, 58 (38.4%) shared decisions, 16 (10.6%) obstinate and 20 (13.2%) consumerist. The frequency of participants who reported having very good contact with end-of-life patients is mostly among the obstinate (n=8,50%) and a minority among paternalists (n=16,28.1%), while those who reported that they had never participated in an end-of-life class, 7 (35%) were from the consumerist and 5 (8.6%) were from the shared group; never attended the ethics class 11 (19%) shared, 7 (35%) consumerists, 4 (25%) obstinate; never had palliative care training 6 (30%) from the consumer group and 5 (31.2%) from the obstinate; have participated in more than 6 training sessions are professionals with a shared group (13, 22.4%). We did not find any significant difference between the profiles regarding knowledge and experience in palliative care or regarding the Burnout index. Finally, we founded that 100% of the obstinate and 95% of the consumerists presented cognitive dissonance regarding the conduct x justification of the conduct they chose (p<0.000).

Conclusão

In our study, we did not find any difference between the profiles in terms of knowledge and experience in palliative care or in terms of the Burnout rate, some data that submerged in this analysis was the division of professionals in the profiles, such as the presence of 17 (29.8%) and 10 (62.5%) of nurses in the paternalistic and obstinate groups, 20 (34.5%) of shared doctors and 9 (45%) of nursing technicians in the consumerist group; furthermore, the most relevant finding of our study was the cognitive dissonance found in the answers and justifications of the scenarios, especially in the obstinate (100%) and consumerist (95%) profiles.

Palavras-chave

Autonomy. Palliative care. Health team. Oncology. Bioethics.

Área

Oncologia - Cuidados Paliativos, Suporte e Terminalidade