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February 28-March 01, 2019 | Paris, France
Palliative Care, Obstetrics and Gynecology
Stroke and Clinical Trials
International Conference on
Joint Event on
International Conference on
&
Journal of Research and Reports in Gynecology and Obstetrics | Volume: 3
Perceptions of aging and becoming ill: A study with elderly people in palliative care
Mariana dos Santos Ribeiro
and
Moema da Silva Borges
University of Brasilia, Brazil
According to Erik Erikson’s theory of the life cycle, in old age,
internal conflicts can emphasize suffering. Elderly look back
over their past and may feel a sense of despair due to the
non-recognition of meaning in life or they may feel a sense of
integrity when they attribute meaning to their achievements
and losses, including illness.
Objective:
To understand the perceptions of elderly people
in palliative care when facing the processes of aging and
illness.
Method:
Exploratory, descriptive, qualitative study. We
interviewed 11 elderlies in palliative care due to oncologic
disease. The interviews were analyzed through ALCESTE
Software.
Results:
From the content analysis, we identified two axes. 1
) Resist to survive and live, covers two categories: Resilient
development, which mentioned the challenges throughout
their lives trajectories, including few opportunities in
accessing studies, financial difficulties, child labor, precarious
living conditions, lack of basic sanitation and loss of parents
and spouses; and the category Aging with integrity, which
portrays the coping strategies used to deal with aging and
illness, including cognitive restructuring used to change
the vision of a stressful situation in order to see it under a
positive light, the spiritual support, which included faith,
reading sacred books and the practice of prayer, and, finally,
they also used acceptance as a coping strategy. The second
axis: 2) Resisting to die well, covers a single category Stress
in illness that emphasized the elderly’s perceptions of stress
related to illness, highlighting, the difficulty in accessing
treatment.
Conclusions:
Despite the adverse experiences along life
trajectory and illness, the participants adopted a positive
posture toward aging and becoming ill. They were able to
live with integrity by using resilient coping strategies.
Speaker Biography
Mariana dos Santos Ribeiro is a nurse. She is specialized in aging by the Federal
University of São Paulo, Brazil and holds a master’s degree in nursing from the
University of Brasilia, Brazil. She has publications in geriatrics and in palliative care and
participates to international conferences in the area.
e:
smarianaribeiro@gmail.comMariana dos Santos Ribeiro et al.
, Res Rep Gynaecol Obstet, Volume 3
DOI: 10.4066/2591-7366-C1-003