Discursive representations and power relations of healthcare workers in the practice of neonatal palliative care

Abstract

This work aims to investigate how healthcare workers discursively represent the practices involved in neonatal palliative care, in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of a public hospital in the Federal District, Brazil. This study is theoretically and methodologically based in Critical Discourse Analysis, using the discursive-ethnography approach, which allowed us to reflect on the interactions and representations of 14 interviews with healthcare workers, from different professions, considering the ideologies involved in the context of their relationships. The results reveal a dependence on high technology to maintain life, leading to reflections on the limits of postponing neonatal death, considering the child's dignity and quality of life. Representations related to problems such as social inequality suggest that professionals need knowledge and understanding about how to relate to these families and how to deal with the issue of palliative care.