Aprendizagem em cuidados paliativos: dados sobre a formação graduada em cursos federais de Terapia Ocupacional

Abstract

Palliative care is a human right, but obstacles such as the availability of opioid medication for pain control, socio-cultural barriers and gaps in the knowledge of health professionals are challenges to be overcome in order to better provide this approach. In the field of Occupational Therapy, the area of palliative care is expanding and, although it has not yet been established as a specialty of the profession, it is gradually being incorporated as an area of practice and/or as knowledge recommended for certain interventional contexts, and it is essential to qualify the teaching of occupational therapists to improve their ability to meet the needs of patients in palliative care. With the aim of investigating occupational therapy undergraduates' perceptions of learning about palliative care, this cross-sectional, descriptive and quantitative study was carried out with students enrolled in the occupational therapy course who were attending the final year of the curriculum in federal universities. Data was collected via an online questionnaire and the questions were analyzed using simple descriptive statistics. There was the participation of 27 students, the results identified low access to training actions on the theme of palliative care in the three levels of actions that permeate training (teaching, research and extension). The offer of content on the subject occurs mostly through theoretical foundations in specific classes throughout the course, with a shortage of practices and internships in the area. There is knowledge presented by the participants about guiding principles of palliative care and basic knowledge for practical action, however, the weaknesses concerning the opportunity of practices in palliative care associated with gaps in important content such as palliative rehabilitation, grief, communication, tanatology, bioethics, as well as evaluative instruments, reflect in the statement that the participants do not know how to choose clinical situations for palliative care and in the perspective focused on the association of palliative care with the exclusively end-of-life process. It is concluded that limitations of knowledge associated with the absence of practical experiences in the area hinder the development of skills necessary for the qualification of care and distance the student from a professional reasoning based on the relations of suffering arising from the occupational repercussions for the implementation of care actions centered on the scope of the profession.