Objective:
To investigate the perception of nurses in relation to concepts of communication to the terminal patient and the strategies adopted by them to communicate with the patient in the terminally ill.
Methods:
Qualitative research, conducted with seven nurses in the intensive care unit of a public health hospital in the city of João Pessoa, Paraíba. The data were collected in recorded interviews, from December 2011 to January 2012, and subjected to content analysis technique.
Results:
The identified categories were: Perception of nurses about communication with the terminal patient and strategies adopted by nurses for a good communication with the terminal patient. Such categories indicated that the professionals start to value the communication in clinical practice, using it as a strategy to assist the care to the terminally ill patient.
Conclusion:
this study is expected to subsidize new investigations, because they are still incipient to the research that addresses the communication on patient terminal care.
Communication; Nursing; Terminally Ill; Humanization of Assistance