Between the fear of the death and the faith in the recovery: family’s experience during an emergency attendance

Abstract

This study has the purpose of describing the experience of the families that have a member attended in the emergency room, and so, we use a qualitative approach, descriptive, and exploring. The study was carried in an hospital located in the south region of Brazil. Subjects of the study are nine people from families that accompanied the attendance of a family member during an emergency situation happened in the october of 2005. These people answered to an open interview. The thematic analysis of content led to the data treatment, which had as result the constitution of two analytical categories. One of them refers to the feelings and difficulties lived for the family members in an emergency attendance situation, approaching the impact of the news for the family and also the feelings that emerged, like the fear of the death, distrust in the presence of the unknown and also in relation to the prognostic and the future of the family member. The other category is about the resources used for the families to face the situation, in which we can notice spirituality, the presence of other members of the family and friends, and also the attendance made by the health team. The study allows to conclude that the family that have a member attended in the emergency room have this experience marked  for the fear of the death and the faith in the recovery.