OBJECTIVE:
to investigate and analyze communication in palliative care contexts from the perspective of nurses, based on Humanistic Nursing Theory.
METHOD:
this is a field study with a qualitative approach, in which ten nurses working in the pediatric oncology unit of a Brazilian public hospital participated. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data. The testimonies were qualitatively analyzed using Humanistic Nursing Theory and based on the five phases of Nursing Phenomenology.
RESULTS:
two thematic categories emerged from the analysis of the study's empirical material: "strategy to humanize nursing care, with an emphasis on relieving the child's suffering" and "strategy to strengthen ties of trust established between nurse and child."
CONCLUSION:
communication is an efficacious element in the care provided to the child with cancer and is extremely important to promoting palliative care when it is based on Humanistic Nursing Theory.
Nursing; Palliative Care; Communication; Neoplasms; Child