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The influence of health care providers’ emotions on clinical judgment regarding diagnosis of the terminally ill

Garcia, María Paz, Cruz Quintana, Francisco, Muñoz Vinuesa, Antonio, Montoya Juarez, Rafael, Prados Peña, Diego, Pappous, Athanasios (2010) The influence of health care providers’ emotions on clinical judgment regarding diagnosis of the terminally ill. Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology, 10 (1). pp. 57-73. ISSN 1697-2600. (KAR id:26260)

Abstract

In Spain, the dying process is sometimes described as «bad» or even «awful». There are many reasons for this situation, the most important being the difficulties health care professionals have to face with death and their lack of ability to help and assist patients to go through the dying process. The influence of the current cultural context regarding death and the way people die is paired with other factors. These factors are both clinical and professional in nature such as for example: the moment of diagnosis of a terminally ill patient that entails important emotional

implications for the health care professionals, the patient and their family. All these factors have a direct influence on the health care assistance. We conducted Grounded

Theory-based, phenomenological, qualitative research using a final sample of 42 indepth interviews with doctors and nurses from different fields in Granada (Spain) in order to understand their point of view, as health care providers, on the assistance given to terminally ill patients. The results were analysed with Atlas-tí software using thematic coding. The results show the effect the emotional factor has on the clinical judgment of health care professionals and support the need for broader and more

comprehensive study.

En España, el proceso de morir se describe con frecuencia como «malo» o incluso como «muy malo». Entre los motivos, destacan las dificultades de los profesionales de la salud para afrontar la muerte y para asistir y acompañar en el proceso de morir a sus enfermos. A la influencia del contexto cultural actual en cuanto al sentido de la muerte y al modo de morir, se unen situaciones de carácter clínico y profesional como el momento del diagnóstico de una enfermedad terminal, con importantes implicaciones emocionales para el profesional, el enfermo y la familia, y un efecto directo en la respuesta asistencial a la situación. Planteamos un estudio cualitativo de tipo fenomenológico, fundamentado en la Grounded Theory, sobre una muestra final de 42 entrevistas en profundidad a médicos y enfermeros de diferentes ámbitos asistenciales de la provincia de Granada (España), para conocer, en su propio contexto, el punto de vista de los profesionales implicados en la atención al enfermo terminal. Los datos se analizaron con el software ATLAS.tí siguiendo una codificación temática. Los resultados muestran el efecto que el factor emocional tiene en el juicio clínico del profesional y justifican la necesidad de ampliar y profundizar en su estudio.

Item Type: Article
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Natural Sciences > Sport and Exercise Sciences
Funders: European Commission (https://ror.org/00k4n6c32)
Depositing User: Athanasios Pappous
Date Deposited: 20 Jan 2011 13:21 UTC
Last Modified: 12 Jul 2022 10:40 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/26260 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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