Abstract

FIGUEREDO VILLA, Katiuska. Paliative care: evolution and development in Cuba. Enferm. glob. [online]. 2011, vol.10, n.21. ISSN 1695-6141.

Palliative care is a of health care that improve the life quality of patients suffering chronic, debilitating or threatening illnesses, and also that of their carers. The aim of this article was to describe the evolution of Palliative care since it appearance and the tendencies that have characterized their development in the world and in Cuba. We consider documented references that explain how Palliative care has been introduced into many health systems all over the world in recent decades. A large amount of information was collected on interdisciplinary teams as being the main work unit for paliative care in various contexts of both health and the home. Applications of Palliative care were found in priority planning for application in the Cuban Primary Health Care with the intention of restoring the essential human dimensions in these patients and in their carers. It was necessary to study historical sources in order to ascertain the evolution and the fundamental stages of the development, the relayion of Palliative care with other elements of the same environment and the collection of widespread information in a general setting that gave form to a single whole in the evolution of Palliative care. As a result, this article historical data of great importance were obtained about how palliative care was introduced and how they evolved in care of critically ill patients suffering chronic or debilitating diseases. At the same time the principles on which Palliative care is sustained were described as were the functions of the interdisciplinary team. Both aspects suppose a theoretical contribution. Work projections in Cuba were put forward for the period 2008-2010 on the basis of the incidence of threatening chronic illnesses in that country.

Keywords : Palliative care; Quality of life; Interdisciplinary team.

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