Reasons for Conspiracy of Silence in Caregivers of Patients in Palliative Care

Introduction: The communication at the end-of-life among terminally ill patients, their family and health workers is difficult. The conspiracy of silence is a frequent situation for patients in palliative care and their families, even for health workers involved. Since this situation leads to an inadequate coping of the death, it is of major importance to know why it happens and the beliefs, feelings and experiences of patients and families who are living these circumstances. Objective: To explore and identify experiences, attitudes and opinions that patients and their families have when they maintain the conspiracy of silence to terminally ill patients. Design: Qualitative descriptive research. Participants: Caregivers of patients in palliative care program. Method: Audio-taped semi-structured interview to caregivers of patients in palliative care until saturation criteria. Data Analysis: Content analysis, through syntactic, semantic and pragmatic analysis, with triangulation of researchers.