Abstract

HOSPITAL IBANEZ, Mª Luz  and  GUALLART CALVO, Reyes. Humanization and health technology in the face of the end-of-life process. Index Enferm [online]. 2004, vol.13, n.46, pp.49-53. ISSN 1699-5988.

The most crucial aspect of the human life is the knowledge of the own death and the decisions to be made in this context. In this point, health professionals acts are based upon personal believes and empathy rather than guided by ethics. Reasons for that include the lack of psychological, cultural or social background (amongst both health professionals, patients and relatives) to discern the real value of therapies administered to terminal patients in order to modify the natural history of the disease and/ or improve patient's well-being. Some other aspects (namely, out-of-scope curative intents or bureaucracy derived from the health organisations) are often disregarded. Certainly, it is not easy to separate each of these factors but health professionals should be able to responsibly analyse any given situation and provide helping solutions to each particular patient taking into consideration its own desires and values. The present paper is not a comprehensive study of this issue but a personal reflection on one of the aspects where nurses are closely involved as they act as a part of the care-team in this situation. We consider our duty and responsibilities in the process of humanise general hospitals in the context of end-of life process and death.