Communicating of poor prognosis to child patients

Abstract

Child death is a difficult issue to deal with, even for healthcare professionals. This paper discusses the attitude of health professionals on the child patient with a poor prognosis and its communication. A narrative bibliographic review with national and international articles besides book chapters on the themes of death, children patients with terminal illnesses, breaking bad news and poor prognosis was made. It was observed that a more emphatic communication, considering and validating the emotions of the patient, tends to bring better results. It was noticed that many professionals feel stressed and have difficulties dealing with this kind of communication, which can be overcome by professional training and early contact with such discussions.