EXPERIENCE REPORT THROUGH PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCES AND THE INSERTION OF SPIRITUALITY IN PALLIATIVE CARE

The Nursing team is privileged, as it is the caregiver who remains 24 hours a day, providing direct assistance to the patient, being able to have an expanded view of the person in the illness process, having the opportunity to incorporate and develop the principles of Palliative Care (CP). From a holistic health perspective, religion/religiosity/spirituality is one of the possibilities for care and management, but it is still largely neglected by health professionals, whether due to lack of knowledge or prejudices and taboos, but which becomes essential in the care of PC patients. Through this experience report, the aim is to highlight the importance of religion/religiosity/spirituality, in the care and management of patients in PC, based on the experience of a nursing professional, her practice in care and teaching, supervising students with patients in the context of CP. Years of accompanying students in practice demonstrated that nursing professionals have difficulty identifying patients' Spiritual Suffering (SE), and when they did, they did not know what to do with this demand, delegating it to other professionals on the team, who also had difficulties, causing (lack of) care in the Spiritual Dimension (DE) of the PC patient, bringing them more suffering and discomfort with their finitude. As a result of these reflections, post -doctoral research is being developed, aimed at identifying ED and building a permanent education script. In summary, these professionals, having the training to identify SE, explore and care for ED, will be able to promote the protection of mental health, both for the patient in PC and for themselves, and become more sensitive professionals in finitude.