Introduction:

The experience of the family members who take the role of primary caregivers, in the process of a terminal illness such as cancer, provides information about the decision making at the end of life. The objective of this work was to know from the experience of the family of the sick who takes decisions at the end of life and how they affect these decisions to the patient if it is not considered their autonomy.

Method:

Study Type: Qualitative research that part of the phenomenological hermeneutic paradigm. Is approached from the phenomenological stance because this allows you to know the perception that the people of the world in which they live and the meaning given to you. In addition focuses on the life experience of the people, in this case in the experience of the relatives of the terminally ill. The semistructured interview was used.

Participants:

Primary caregivers and relatives of patients with terminal cancer who were treated in hospitals in Mexico City.

Procedure:

A semi-structured interview guide was developed. It conducted 11 interviews of which eight formed dyads caregiver/family. The remaining three were made to caregivers. Six interviews were conducted in a space of a tertiary hospital and five in public spaces. Thematic analysis and the method used van Manen.

Results:

The experience of family shows on the one hand that decisions were taken by the patient (autonomous plane), although there were some cases in which he did not take the decision at the final moment, the families were those who had to take responsibility to make decisions, depending on how it was presenting the disease process (dependent plane). It is important to note that in the cases studied there was not always adequate physician-patient communication. In addition, the phenomenological perspective, was that people could be aware of their existence and their world from the disease, as a destabilizing event.

Discussion or Conclusion:

In this work it was observed that respect for patient autonomy is essential for decision-making at the end of life. If you do not have the patient or family with information on the diagnosis and/or prognosis, it is very difficult to make decisions and avoid death with suffering and discomfort. As various investigations have pointed out, it is necessary that the physician talk to patients about the situation in which they find so they can better cope with the disease and prepare for death. In the cases studied, there was little or no doctor-patient communication, so that more training is needed in this area.