Death-dying interface and training for nursing care

Abstract

The aim was to know the ways of approaching death and dying in the teaching-learning process of the undergraduate Nursing course at a Federal University in the South of Brazil. Descriptive-exploratory qualitative research, carried out between 2018 and 2019 through self-administered semi-structured interviews with 133 undergraduates and coordinators of the phases of the nursing course at a University of Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil. It also collects from documental sources, the Political-Pedagogical Project, the menus and teaching plans of the compulsory and optional subjects of the curriculum. Data analysis followed Bardin's Content Analysis and discussion based on vulnerability concepts. From the content analysis carried out, the theme makes up 7 of the 44 curricular subjects offered. The interviews show the ways of approaching the theme and the vulnerabilities in the training of nurses. Methodologies centered on seminars, video classes, conversation circles, expository-dialogued classes and lectures. Two categories emerged from the analysis: Documentary curricular identity of death and dying; Death and dying: effectiveness and vulnerability in nursing education. The research evidences the fragility in the ways and forms of approaching the theme and the dichotomy between the undergraduate students' and the professors' view, creating vulnerabilities to the practice and professional nursing care.