Background: Coping is essential to manage palliative care professionals’ challenges. The focus has been on the effects of coping mechanism; however, little is known about coping itself in palliative care. Aim: To synthesise evidence of coping strategies in palliative care professionals, and how different strategies play roles over time. Design: Systematically conducted integrative review. Data sources: PubMed; CINAHL; Medline; PsycINFO and B-ON were searched (1996–2021) combining ‘coping’ AND ‘palliative care’. A predefined data extraction sheet was developed to report data. Two researchers performed constant comparative analysis using Nvivo^®. Results: Thirty-one studies were included. Four main strategies with recurrent reference to time were found: (a) proactive coping, involving activities to achieve self-confidence and control situations and emotions; (b) self-care based coping, including self-protection and self-awareness activities, with behavioural disconnection; (c) self-transformation coping, involving activities to accept limits; and (d) encountering deep professional meaning, is a coping mechanism based on meaning, frequently considering the deepest meaning of work. The dynamic and influencing factors were training, team interaction, professional motivation and family. They were usually protective factors, though sometimes they represented risk factors. The emotional burden associated with healthcare and systemic stressors were always risk factors. An explanatory model describes a complex and dynamic process, in which everyday strategies and more introspective strategies are combined. Conclusions: The model showed a process of adaptation and learning to persevere in palliative care. It changes over time under factors and strategies, and evolves in a personal and professional transformation, parallel to the working life. It would be worth assessing coping in healthcare professionals who chose to leave palliative care and to investigate the reasons they did so and their coping mechanisms.

Resumo Atualmente sabe-se que resultados positivos em saúde derivam de fatores como valorização e respeito, participação nas decisões, autoestima positiva e capacidade de exercer controle sobre a própria vida, indicando que a percepção do paciente sobre a própria dignidade é elemento central do cuidado. Trata-se de conceito complexo, difícil de definir por falta de clareza quanto ao que implica, mas fundamental na enfermagem. Este artigo apresenta revisão de literatura com o objetivo de discutir aspectos da dignidade no contexto da ética do cuidado.

Background: Palliative care professionals face emotional challenges when caring for patients with serious advanced diseases. Coping skills are essential for working in palliative care. Several types of coping strategies are mentioned in the literature as protective. However, little is known about how coping skills are developed throughout a professional career. Aim: To develop an explanatory model of coping for palliative care professionals throughout their professional career. Design: A grounded theory study. Two researchers conducted constant comparative analysis of interviews. Setting/participants: Palliative care nurses and physicians across nine services from Spain and Portugal ( n = 21). Theoretical sampling included professionals who had not continued working in palliative care. Results: Professionals develop their coping mechanisms in an iterative five-stage process. Although these are successive stages, each one can be revisited later. First: commencing with a very positive outlook and emotion, characterized by contention. Second: recognizing one’s own vulnerability and experiencing the need to disconnect. Third: proactively managing emotions with the support of workmates. Fourth: cultivating an integrative approach to care and understanding one’s own limitations. Fifth: grounding care on inner balance and a transcendent perspective. This is a transformative process in which clinical cases, teamwork, and selfcare are key factors. Through this process, the sensations of feeling overwhelmed sometimes can be reversed because the professional has come to understand how to care for themselves. Conclusions: The explicative model presents a pathway for personal and professional growth, by accumulating strategies that modulate emotional responses and encourage an ongoing passion for work.

The transition into the twenty-first century brought about important changes in society, including the areas of education and teaching. The establishment of the European Higher Education Area represents an effort to face these changes together in Europe. The changes in the teaching and learning models in higher education led to the institutional promotion of extensive interventions in order to alter the status quo that has prevailed for decades. The need for a cultural renewal of the teaching staff involved in higher education, attending to the centrality of student’s learning rather than knowledge per se, is also a challenge to be overcome. This study intends to highlight the central elements concerning the Bologna Process and the topics connecting the objectives and their intrinsic principles. This initial approach is the basis for the design of a proposal for monitoring the implementation of the Bologna Process in an institution of higher education in Portugal. The results suggest a proposal consistent with the needs in terms of monitoring the implementation of the Bologna Process. This proposal allows, in addition to static analysis relative to a specific academic year, dynamic analysis between academic years, uncovering best practices and areas for improvement.

Segundo a WHO (2002), as sociedades estão a envelhecer, sendo possível observar uma transformação demográfica sem precedentes na história da humanidade. O sucesso das transformações sociais, ao acolherem o envelhecimento saudável, é proporcional à precariedade dos mecanismos que dispomos para lidar com a velhice frágil e dependente. É um facto que se acrescentou mais anos de vida à população em geral; contudo, a inexorabilidade da velhice só poderá ser evitada se houver uma morte prematura. Para muitos idosos, os últimos anos de vida são devastados pela doença crónica, deficiência ou demência, e dependência maior. Do ponto de vista histórico da humanidade, somos uma sucessão de gerações, cada vez mais velhas, amparadas pela ilusão da renovação. O passado foi mais jovem que o presente, e o futuro terá ainda mais idade. Este artigo pretende apresentar a reflexão acerca do envelhecimento individual, realizada durante a investigação acerca da Promoção e Preservação da Dignidade no contexto de cuidados em lares de idosos, realizada no contexto do Doutoramento em Enfermagem da Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal.