Assistance to patients eligible for palliative care: the view of professionals from an Intensive Care Unit

OBJECTIVE: to understand the perception of the multiprofessional team about the quality of health care provided to patients in palliative care in the Intensive Care Unit. METHOD: qualitative study, anchored to Donabedian’s theoretical framework, through semi-structured interviews with 35 professionals working in the Intensive Care Unit. For data analysis, the Content Analysis technique was used. RESULTS: three categories were pre-established: structure, process, and outcome, from which five subcategories emerged: Deficit in terms of numbers of workers and professional qualification; Ambience and palliative care; (In)existence of assistance based on the principles of palliative care; Failures in communication and in the interdisciplinary approach and Repercussions of (lack of) assistance. CONCLUSION: the study allowed understanding the institutional weaknesses for the operationalization of care provided to patients eligible for palliative care in the Intensive Care Unit setting. Thus, for this philosophy of care to be propagated, the co-participation of managers, professionals, patients, and family members is required, since these gaps cannot be filled without collective involvement.