Palliative care in a neonatal intensive care unit: A systematic review

Palliative Care in a neonatal intensive care unit represents an expanding area that needs special attention in comprehensive care for the newborn and family during treatment and the period of mourning. This study aims to identify the Palliative Care actions performed in a neonatal ICU. This is a systematic review, which followed the recommendations of the Cochrane Collaboration. The search bases included: MEDLINE, Cochrane Library and Scielo. With the application of inclusion and exclusion criteria, 10 articles were selected. The analysis of the protocols revealed that there are measures in common between them, such as the use of comfort measures, support to the family during the hospitalization process and in mourning, discussion with the family and shared decision, interaction of the multidisciplinary team, withdrawal from intensive means life support and continuedteam training. The evidence points that the implementation of the Palliative Care program in NICU is beneficial to the patient, family and team, but there are fundamental approaches that need to be addressed by protocols to be implemented and that there is still a need to improve specific points such as communication between family and team and there is a lack of care with emotional health and perceptions of professionals.