Consciência da terminalidade: um estudo preliminar

Abstract

This is about a research which main goal was to characterize the conception of death of people who has an incurable and/or terminal disease on its life project. It started in January of 1996 and was completed in June of 1997. It took place at Professor Edgard Santos University Hospital with 29 (twenty-nine) patients. The seeking facts were collected through semi-structured interviews. The principais were analyzed according four categories inter-related and inter-dependent: KNOWING THE CLIENT, IDENTIFICATION OF THE CLIENTS SIGNS, HOW MUCH THE CLIENT AND FAMILY KNOWS ABOUT THE DISEASE, THE CLIENTS REACTION RELATED TO THE DISEASE. The results were expressed in a conceptual organization, which the central category is constituted by the death conceptualization process. In the death process people start reviewing the life they lived and identify significant conscience change reflected on the everyday attitudes. These categories described how the incurable and/or terminal disease brought to the Client the conscience of terminality and the changes happened on the clienfs life project. We observed that changing the death significance implies on a change of the life significance and the reverse is also truth: change the life significance implies in a change of the death significance.