The palliative care defend the use of relief therapy for patients suffering in case of life-threatening diseases, respecting their physical, mental, social and spiritual aspects. In this regard, it is intended to identify what the patients’ families understand about the relief therapy. This is an exploratory and qualitative study developed by the application of 11 semi-structured interviews with family caregivers. The data emerging from the interviews were subject to content analysis and integrated to the current literature on palliative care. Understandings of palliative care involves from the ignorance of the term to the notion of care of the disease. It is concluded that communication between team-families is essential in the construction of this understanding. Even most families do not acknowledge this fact, the results show a positive setting towards the implementation of the philosophy of palliative care.
Palliative care; Family; Lung cancer; Communication