Cuidar do paciente oncológico em quimioterapia: percepções do familiar cuidador

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: In cancer illness, the sick person may need different therapies for treatment. Among the proposed types of treatment, there is chemotherapy, considered one of the most complex treatment modalities. This complexity is linked to different conditions, which eventually generate dependence to varying degrees, which require personal effort and also the support and care and professional caregivers, whether formal or informal. OBJECTIVE: To know the perceptions of family members, cancer chemotherapy patients, related to the care process. METHODOLOGY: Research with qualitative, descriptive methodological approach, which used the Focus Group (FG) technique for data collection. Data were transcribed and analyzed using the Bardin Content Analysis technique, associated with the textual analysis software, IRAMUTEQ. Two major categories were built. RESULTS: From the analysis performed, considering the word cloud, tree of similarities, as well as content analysis, the categories were named as: “Care context” and “Repercussions in the caregiver's life”, where the former identified as family members. they organize themselves to care and what are the representations of the sick family member in the caregiver's life and the second category identified the main repercussions in the caregiver's general life. There were several strategies to cope with the difficulties encountered in caring, with emphasis on the search for strength and internal motivation and the strengthening of faith. FINAL CONSIDERATIONS: The qualitative methodology, using the focus group technique, allowed us to identify, in the narratives of the caregivers' experiences, that being with their family members was perceived as the greatest manifestation of care. The trajectory of care had repercussions on the caregivers' lives, leading them to give up caring for themselves, to dedicate themselves fully to the care of others. In this sense, it was identified that the family caregiver should also be the object of care by the care team. Further study of the findings may be the subject of further study, as well as explore other aspects of family care. It is hoped that these results may contribute to broaden the professionals' perspective to include the family member in their planning and implementation of oncology care.