THE ROLE OF NURSES IN PALLIATIVE CARE FOR PATIENTS RECEIVING HOME HEALTHCARE

Abstract

Palliative care has become an essential approach in health care, providing comfort, dignity, and quality of life for people living with serious, progressive, or life-threatening illnesses, as well as for their families. In this context, nurses play a fundamental role in delivering comprehensive care through pain management, symptom control, qualified listening, emotional support, and guidance for caregivers. This study aimed to analyze the role of nurses in palliative care assistance for patients receiving home care, identifying the main challenges and the relevance of humanized care. This is a bibliographic review with a qualitative and descriptive approach, based on scientific articles published between 2020 and 2025 and indexed in the LILACS, MEDLINE, and BDENF databases. The descriptors used were palliative care, home care, nursing, and humanization of care, combined with the Boolean operator AND. The findings showed that nursing plays an essential role in promoting patients’ physical, emotional, social, and spiritual comfort, while also supporting family members and caregivers. However, challenges were identified, including caregiver burden, structural limitations of home care services, insufficient multidisciplinary teams, and the need for greater professional training in palliative care. It is concluded that humanization, therapeutic communication, and continuous professional development are essential elements for ensuring ethical, comprehensive, high-quality home-based palliative care centered on the needs of patients and their families.