Family members and professionals' experience with patients in palliative care

The present study investigated the experience of family caregivers and professionals facing the death of cancer patients under palliative care in the terminal phase. Interviews were conducted with ten family caregivers and a focus group with a team of professional home care of a hospital oncology. Some relatives of those patients were hospitalized and others at home in that institution. From the focus group were defined four categories for analysis, and also supported by the analysis of the interviews, they are: concepts of caregiver, caregiver training, job challenges and beliefs and attitudes towards death. The analyzes allowed us to affirm that caregivers - both professional and family members - recognize the experience as a process that is over time and the challenges of care surrounding the death are the subject of ongoing reflection. This study contributes to the debate on palliative care, growing interdisciplinary object approaching work and family.