Decisões terapêuticas com pacientes em fim de vida: a visão do residente

Abstract

Epidemiological and demographic changes directly impact the increase in non-communicable chronic diseases and the demand for increasingly complex healthcare, which involves multidisciplinary and shared decision-making among the team, family, and patient. Therefore, the objective of this research was to explore the perspective of residents regarding therapeutic decisions with end-of-life patients, framed within the principles of Beauchamp and Childress' bioethics. The specific aims were to describe, through the discourse of multidisciplinary residents, the process of making therapeutic decisions with end-of-life patients and the moral and bioethical foundations guiding these decisions, as well as to identify the involvement of healthcare professionals, family/caregivers, and the patients themselves in end-of-life therapeutic decisions. This qualitative, descriptive, and exploratory research was conducted with 25 residents from three multidisciplinary residency programs in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Data collection was based on semi-structured interviews conducted from July 15th to September 20th, 2022. The snowball sampling method was used to select participants, where the first participant is chosen randomly and subsequent participants are referred by the preceding ones. The ethical criteria outlined in Resolution 466/2012 of the Ministry of Health were observed throughout the research process. Data analysis was performed using Denize Oliveira's categorical analysis. Three categories emerged from the analysis: "Process of decision-making with end-of-life patients," "Ethical principles guiding decision-making," and "The ideal world and the real world of the decision-making process." The first category aimed to detail the decision-making process with end-of-life patients, highlighting the centralization of decision-making, multidisciplinary decision-making, and shared decision-making with patients and their families. The second category linked the decision-making process with end-of-life patients to Beauchamp and Childress' bioethical principles, demonstrating their individualized application to personalize decision-making. The third category identified the aspects that residents perceived as ideal for the decision-making process, as well as the challenges encountered in the clinical practice influenced by structural, social, and academic difficulties. The findings suggest that we are still far from an ideal model of decision-making, as it remains predominantly physician-centered, hierarchical, and lacking in shared decision-making with families and patients.