[Palliative care in paediatric oncology: perceptions, expertise and practices from the perspective of the multidisciplinary team].
OBJECTIVE
To reveal the perceptions, expertise and practices of multi-professional teams providing palliative care to children in a paediatric oncology unit. The research questions were based on everyday care, facilitations and difficulties, essential aspects of professional approaches, and the inter-disciplinary focus of care for children in palliative care and their families.


METHODS
Qualitative, exploratory and descriptive research. Data were collected from June to October 2013 from nine professional multidisciplinary team members by means of a semi-structured interview submitted to thematic analysis.


RESULTS
The following four themes emerged from analysis: palliative care: conceptions of the multi-professional team; the construction of singular care; the facilitations and difficulties experienced by the team and significant lessons learned.


CONCLUSIONS
The subjects revealed that the team also suffers with the death of a child and, like the family, moves toward the construction of coping mechanisms for the elaboration of mourning. Paradoxically, the team shares knowledge to determine the foundations of a singular therapeutic project and inserts the family in this process so that it can be the protagonist of the child's care.
Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Brazil.
Adriana Ferreira da
AF
Silva
School of Nursing, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
Helena Becker
HB
Issi
Department of Maternal, EEUFRGS, Brazil.
Maria da Graça Corso da
Mda G
Motta
Centro Universitário Metodista, Brazil.
Daisy Zanchi de Abreu
DZ
Botene
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000488:Allied Health Personnel / Q000523:psychology; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001293:Attitude to Death; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006117:Grief; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008495:Medical Oncology; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology; D009859:Oncology Nursing; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000523:psychology*; D010348:Patient Care Team; D010371:Pediatric Nursing; D010372:Pediatrics; D011368:Professional-Family Relations; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D036301:Qualitative Research