A look into the emotions experienced by social workers attending terminally ill

Abstract

Since its inception Social Work has faced a common denominator: human suffering in all its manifestations. To address these situations, the social worker requires a set of skills and tools to respond professionally to the subject that requires professional services. But what happens when we talk about the physical and emotional pain experienced by patients in terminal stage? Where the social worker attends and accompanies long way to them, what emotions experienced Social Workers?, suffer from emotional exhaustion? This paper documents the preliminary results of the qualitative research conducted to explore the emotions experienced by social workers involved professionally with terminally ill. It is theoretically supported from cognitive theory of emotions of Richard Lazarus. It was carried out 25 depth interviews to social workers at three public and one private institutions, specialized in care for patients in terminal stage, located in the city of Guadalajara Jalisco, Mexico: the Jalisco Institute of Pain Relief and Palliative Care (PALIA), Specialty Hospital of the Mexican Social Security Institute, the Regional Hospital Valentin Gomez Farias and Shelter Fray Antonio Alcalde AC. Among the main emotions expirienced by social workers include sadness, pride and depression.