A espiritualidade no processo de morte e morrer: pacientes com doenças crônicas não transmissíveis

Abstract

Brazil currently goes through big transformations in its population pyramid profile, the illness processes generates concerns and distinguished demands at the assistance, that despite the technologies to sustain life, death remains to be the only certitude. During this process, when we face the final frontier, we formulate a number of questions specially related to spirituality and death. Among the pathologies cancer became a public health issue. Cancer is defined as a group of illnesses involving the abnormal cell growth with potential to invade and spread to other parts of the body. The spiritual dimension is an important resource, since it promotes assistance during the confrontation of adversity related to the health-illness-finitude. Therefore spirituality offers the understanding of the essence that inhabits in every being, encouraging the interest into oneself and into others that might or not be experienced through religion. The purpose of the study was to know spirituality in patients with chronicaldegenerative diseases and its relevance to the process of death and dying inside a hospital in western SC. 160 admitted patients were interviewed at the unities of a reference hospital in western Santa Catarina in the months of August and September. The interviews had a 40- minute length in a private room. The precepts of the 466/2016 and the TCLE signature were carefully obeyed. The data received statistic descriptive treatment through central tendency measures (average and median) and variability (diversion pattern and interquartis amplitude), and also, the absolute relative distribution (n - %).The continuous symmetry distribution was evaluated by the Kolmogrov-Smirnov test. The study presented the following results: A 53,8% male predominance. The average was 61,6 years old. The education levels of the participants were elementary (57,1%). About the monthly family income 70% of the patients receive two minimal wages or less. The Catholic religion is predominant to 81,3% of the participants. 68,1% belongs to some kind of community. 90,0% of the patients experience their spirituality through the belief system that were educated in or were chosen. The most common religious practice is the preying habit (89,9%). All the interviewed participants accept the spiritual elements which are accepted by all ages. The practice of spirituality is an important requirement to their lives. In the final planning in the process of death and dying, 25,0% pointed that the decisions are in the family and doctors hands. Related to pain, 54,4% informed not having any. Slightly persistent symptoms were 39,0%. 40,3% claimed not having any anxiety related to the illness. The concern of any relative 53,5% answered yes. 84,3% reported that the information about the illness was complete. 81,1% reported to have shared everything with to their relatives. 90,6% feel that their lives matter. 84,9 of the patients feel good about themselves. 78,0% reported to spend more than half a day with the illness. 57,9% of the patients don’t have any kind of financial issues related to the illness and 90,6% of the patients answered the questionnaire by themselves.