Health care under the oncological patient's perspective

Objectives: To describe how health professionals act in the care of patients treated by a hospital oncology service. Method: This is a qualitative study, whose data collection was performed through semi-structured interviews. They were transcribed and analyzed by the Collective Subject Discourse technique. Twenty-five patients who were admitted to the oncology department of a public hospital participated in this study. Results: Three central ideas were identified that indicated inappropriate conduct of professionals and three that demonstrate an appropriate positioning. Negative aspects: In addition to ethical failures, distancing, impatience, harshness, lack of veracity in notes, delayed care, excessive bureaucracy, noise in the hospital environment, lack of listening, clinical examination and anamnesis were evident. Positive aspects: welcome, affection, empathy, use of spirituality, friendship and use of complementary therapies. Final considerations: Even though potentialities were found, significant weaknesses were observed, demonstrating that some important aspects for humanized care are disregarded, reinforcing the need for professionals to value the precepts of ethics as the next, so that the suffering inherent to the health process -sickness is minimized. This opens space for the potentialities pointed out to be optimized in order to qualify the health care of these patients.