The purpose of this article is to present the authors' effort of synthesizing research material on palliative care as well as the bibliography studied. Firstly, some considerations about palliative care in two structurally different countries, Brazil and France, are presented. The discussion focuses the authors' research experience at a SIDA ward in the first country and at an Intern Medicine ward in the latter, which held cancer and SIDA patients within a palliative care logic. Secondly, aspects related to pain and death are discussed considering concepts of Bioethics alongside the relational dimension concerning health care. The concepts pointed out are those of justice, autonomy, beneficence and non-maleficence. In conclusion, we present some possible contributions of Ergonomics and Work Psychodinamics in the Palliative Care field, taking into special consideration the psychological dimension of this debate.
Suffering; Palliative care; Hospitals; Ergonomics; Mental health