Palliative care and its own identity, through an autoethnography: do you recognize these patterns?

Introduction: After more than 25 years working in palliative care (PC) observing thousands of patients and family behaviors, I use my long experience and notes as a source of data for a qualitative research study. The aim is to identify frequent families' behavior patterns in PC and better describe the culture in PC.

Methods: This article is part of a larger project, using autoethnography as methodology, with the aim of helping doctors and interested health professionals better understand the culture and reality of PC.

The Impact of COVID-19 on Palliative Care: Perspective of Healthcare Professionals.

The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted the provision of Palliative Care (PC), challenging the teams aiming to provide adequate care. This is a qualitative study that intends to know, from the perspective of health professionals of a Palliative Care Unit (PCU), the main challenges in providing PC during a pandemic and describes the strategies to be adopted to solve the identified difficulties. We utilized the content analysis, according to Bardin, for data analysis of written narratives of health professionals from a PCU (n=14).

[Delirium: The 7th Vital Sign?].

Introduction: Delirium is an acute, transient and fluctuating neuropsychiatric syndrome that is common in medical wards, particularly in the geriatric and palliative care population.

Material And Methods: We present a brief literature review of the definition, pathophysiology, aetiology, diagnosis, prevention and treatment of delirium and its social and economic impact.

Results And Discussion: Delirium is under-recognized, especially by health professionals, and is associated with higher morbidity, mortality and economic burden.

Symptomatic Control in End-of-Life Patients.

End-of-life patients present a variety of symptoms that cause suffering for them and their respective families. Health professionals throughout their university, internship and medical careers are ill-prepared to manage and improve the quality of life of these patients. This article aims to provide basic skills in the symptomatic management of end-of-life patients, focusing in particular on the control of pain, dyspnoea, fatigue, nausea, vomiting and anorexia.