PALLIATIVE CARE:

understanding among psychology and medical students

Abstract

Introduction: Palliative care is an approach provided by a multidisciplinary team for patients with life-threatening illnesses and their families and the difficulties that come with it. Objective: Given the importance of such care offered by health teams, this article presents the newest concept of palliative care, its historical background, and the evolving role of health professionals involved in this practice over time. Additionally, this study investigates and compares the understanding of palliative care among psychology and medical school students through field research. Materials and Methods: The research follows the qualitative and exploratory methods of data analysis and involves 06 (six) semi-structured interviews with the selected participants, which included 03 (three) psychology students and 03 (three) medical students, all of them being part of the Renascença Campus of the institution Universidade CEUMA, situated at the city of São Luís, state of Maranhão, Brazil, student body. As this research's guiding instrument, a questionnaire developed by the author, consisting of five questions aligned with the study's general and specific objectives, was applied. Results: It became clear that psychology students lack access to the topic and demonstrate limited knowledge about the new concept of palliative care, with their perceptions primarily linked to human terminality. Conclusion: Considering that professionals in the Psychology and medical areas are likely to encounter situations requiring collaboration with palliative care teams, a comprehensive appropriation of palliative care during their academic studies is relevant.