FENOMENOLOGIA DA PERDA E DO CUIDADO DE ENFERMAGEM: O SER FAMILIAR DIANTE DO ADOECIMENTO E MORTE POR COVID-19

Abstract

In the context of the covid-19 pandemic, nursing care played a significant role, requiring an even deeper ontological understanding that permeated the daily relationship between the caregiver-the nurse-and the one who experienced it profoundly-the family. Illness and loss due to covid-19 altered family dynamics with mutual influences in a scenario full of uncertainties, directly impacting the experience of grief. Thus, it is understood that the suffering in the face of loss and the nursing care received reshaped the way of living.The study aimed to understand the meaning of the loss of a loved one and of nursing care for the family-being in the context of illness and death due to covid-19 in a hospital setting. This is a qualitative, phenomenological study, having Martin Heidegger’s Being and Time as its philosophical theoretical framework and hermeneutic analysis as its methodological reference, which is dedicated to presenting the meaning of the existentiality of “Being”. Physical medical records of patients who died from covid-19 in a public hospital located in the Central-North region of São Luís, Maranhão, were identified. Ten (10) nuclear family and extended family members of patients who accompanied their loved one's illness and death from covid-19 participated in the research, residing in São Luís, aged 18 years or older, both sexes and who consentend by signing a form. The research was conducted at the family members’ homes from August to December 2024, in São Luís, Maranhão. The understanding and interpretation of data were based on Martin Heidegger’s hermeneutic circle. Three (3) units of meaning and signification were identified: “The family-being in the face of a loved one’s illness”; “The family-being in the face of a loved one’s death”; “The nursing-being for the family member.” The family-being, in the face of their loved one’s illness, shares a network of affection, care, and responsibilities, becoming immersed in the perplexity of life’s vulnerability.This experience provokes a reconfiguration of daily life, experiencing the distancing imposed by sanitary measures, destabilizing pre-existing certainties, and requiring adaptation to the new, which becomes strained by uncertainty, sadness, and fear-circumstances that bring the family-being closer to existential anguish.The family-being in the face of the death of their loved one is permeated by the expectation of recovery and does not recognize the possibility of life’s finitude, which generates helplessness and anguish, culminating in sadness and guilt. This irreversible rupture with their loved one, in the face of powerlessness and inevitability, highlights the emotional impact of loss, loneliness, and the grieving process, leading to a reorganization of the family system in search of a new balance. Nursing care, beyond the technical dimension, manifested as a sensitive, empathetic, and supportive presence, contributing to this re-signification, especially in a context of isolation and absence of farewells. The nursing practice was recognized as an expression of ontological care, which embraces human vulnerability and finitude, manifested through attentive listening and the ethics of care. It is concluded that the loss of a loved one faced by family members was marked by profound anguish, sadness, guilt, helplessness, and loneliness. The pandemic imposed unprecedented challenges to the existential dimension of nursing care for families, highlighting the need for a deep understanding of the uniqueness of experiences, valuing encounters with life’s finitude, vulnerabilities, and the deepest needs of the being, contributing to a more empathetic, dignified, and compassionate being-with relationship. The optical-phenomenological-reflective essay of this research contributes to the ingenious dialogical process also with other philosophers in uncovering and revealing to understand the true self, subsidizing more sensitive, ethical and authentic practices, contributing to the resignification of grief, existence, suffering and death.