GUIDE FOR INTERPERSONAL PROCESS OF HELP IN NURSING TO RELATIVES OF THE CRITICAL PATIENT

Abstract

Based on Viktor Frankl’s logotherapy, a guide on the process of interpersonal help between the nurse and the relatives of the critically-ill patient is proposed. This is a strategy based on a humanist, existential and personalistic perspective, to awake, in the professional nurse, their ethical, conscious and responsible action towards caring. The theme arose from Frankl’s tragic triad: suffering, guilt and death, experienced by the relative of the critically-ill patient treated in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU), of a general and private hospital in the city of Salvador, Brazil. Considering the fact that from tragic events optimism emerges and it generates resilience to direct the care of the nurse towards the relatives of the patient in critical condition, the proposed guide has four stages: triadic diagnosis, aid planning, application of the aid strategies and evaluation of the aid process. With this tool it is expected to support the transformation of the tragic triad, that is, to transform suffering into attitude, guilt into reflections for change, and the possibility of death into responsible actions.