Da perda ao cuidado: memorial descritivo-reflexivo sobre o luto e formação médica

Abstract

The work consists of a descriptive-reflective report, with a qualitative approach and autobiographical nature, in which I recount my journey over six years in the Medicine course at the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar). Based on autobiographical reflections built from my academic portfolio — the main tool for recording and evaluation established in the Political-Pedagogical Project (PPP) of the course — I present the main difficulties I faced during my training and how I managed them, organized into four cycles: the period before entering Medicine, the basic cycle, the clinical cycle, and the internship. Grief is the central thread of the narrative, since experiencing grief in childhood, following the death of my mother, is one of the main reasons I chose the medical profession. To complement the proposed reflective framework, I conducted a brief literature review on grief in adults and children, articulating my personal experience with theoretical references on the subject. Throughout the essay, I also discuss the collective grief experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic, my participation in extension and scientific initiation projects focused on mental health and grief in healthcare professionals, and the challenges of facing death and illness during clinical practice and internship. I conclude that writing this essay allowed me to integrate the personal and professional aspects of my medical training, highlighting grief as a central experience both in my choice of profession and in developing more sensitive and humanized care for patients and their families.