[EMOTIONAL MANAGEMENT AND CRITICAL THINKING IN THE AID RELATIONSHIP OF THE HOLISTIC CARE OF PALLIATIVE PATIENTS]. / Gestión emocional y hábito reflexivo en la relación de Ayuda para el cuidado holístico del paciente paliativo.

To care for palliative patients is essential that healthcare professionals develop emotional competencies. This means acquiring the habit of self reflection and be emphatic with other people, in order to be able to identify the personal emotions of patients, family and team. Reflection involves a continuing effort to reason about aspects of professional practice, especially on issues as complex as suffering and death. Both reflective reasoning and emotional management are vital in an Aid Relationship. For nursing healthcare professionals, to care the emotional aspects means becoming aware of their own and others feelings, and get to understand and accept to handle them properly. Nursing actions involves many qualities of social competence, such as empathy, understanding, communication skills, honesty, flexibility and adaptability to the individual needs of people cared. In the context of palliative care patients and their families all these aspects are fundamental and are part of the same philosophy. Emotional education still remains a challenge in our profession both in the initial and continuing training.

[NURSING ACTION BEFORE THE TERMINAL PATIENT PHYSICAL CARE]. / Actuación de enfermería ante e culdado físico en el paciente terminal.

Palliative care is a group of actions performed by nurses in order to increase the comfort and well-being of patients with terminal illnesses. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines this term as: An approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problem associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial and spiritual [1]. Cicely Mary Strode Saunders is considered as the precursor of the palliative care, who explained the need to change the Palliative Care Units in order to improve the quality of life of patients with terminal illnesses. Palliative care is necessary for patients with a terminal illness. In such cases, the life expectancy is less than six months. Human being is considered a biopsychosocial model. For this reason, the nurse must take into account all the requirements arising from these three dimensions of the human being. In this essay, we deal with palliative care in patients with terminal illnesses, considering the role of the nurse as an important reference when teaching palliative care to the main carer.