Resilience and death: The nursing professional in the care of children and adolescents with life-limiting illnesses

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyze the resilience of the nursing staff in providing care for children and adolescents with chronic diseases, including coping with their deaths. The participants of this qualitative research were nursing professionals working in the pediatric ward of a hospital in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The data collection was obtained by applying the resilience scale, by returning the scales in groups, and by semi-structured interviews. The relationship between professional resilience and coping with the process of children and adolescent’s deaths stood out in the analysis based on data obtained from group and individual interviews. The care given to children and adolescents with life-limiting illnesses triggers resilience-related answers concerning alternatives that oscillate between individual reactions (religious and psychological support), and the search for an incipient collective support based on personal relationships. This study points out that this subject must be strategically handled to train this professional, who must 1 be able to rely on support from the collective environment, presumed within the professional health care training and in the management of humanization at the hospital.