Nursing attendance in the family health program: focus on families in mourning situation

Abstract

This study aimed at verifying how the nurses act in the attendance to families in mourning situation. It is a descriptive study conducted in the family health units in Sobral-CE. The data collection happened from October to November of 2003. The semi-structured interview was used, carried out with 14 nurses of the Family Health Strategy. The data were analyzed and interpreted through discourse analysis. It is considered that the nurses of the family health program are assisting the mourning families mainly through the domiciliary visit. Other actions refer to the guidance on the bureaucratic matters that permeate the obit process. That shows the amplitude of the care provided. The attendance to families is regarded by many nurses not as an obligation established in protocols, but as a matter of humanism and solidarity.