Abstract

PAIXAO, Sara; APARICIO, Graça; DUARTE, João  and  MAIA, Luís.   Pediatric palliative care: : Educational needs assessment and coping strategies of healthcare providers. Revista Portuguesa de Enfermagem de Saúde Mental [online]. 2020, n.spe7, pp.50-56. ISSN 1647-2160.  https://doi.org/10.19131/rpesm.0247.

BACKGROUND: Caring for children with life-limiting or life-threatening, complex chronic disease (CCD) is a multidimensional, complex and challenging task. Education in Pediatrics Palliative Care (PPC) is indispensable for the quality of health care provided to the child / family in this condition. AIM: Identify the CPP training needs and analyze the relationship with sociodemographic, professional and coping variables adopted. METHODS: A cross-sectional and descriptive study carried out with a non-probabilistic sample of 102 health professionals from a public hospital, in the central region of Portugal. An on-line questionnaire was used with sociodemographic and professional characterization questions, an adaptation of the scale of training needs in palliative care (Candeias, 2009), the coping scale (Carver, 1997) validated for the Portuguese population by Pais Ribeiro & Rodrigues (2004). RESULTS: From the professionals, 39.2% admitted a moderate need of education in Palliative care and 32.4% high needs. Only 10.8% of the professionals had educational training in the area and these were the only variable that interfered with the educational needs. We identify 4 dimensions lacking in education: Palliative care conception, Emotional Aspects of Caring, Teamwork and skills development. The coping strategies most frequently adopted vary with gender, category and time of professional exercise, and are mainly focused on adaptive strategies. CONCLUSIONS: The professionals identify areas of training and variables that predict the coping resources to adopt, in order to find a balance between the sources of stress and personal and professional satisfaction.

Keywords : Palliative care; Child; Education continuing; Emotional adjustment; Psychological adaptation.

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