ABSTRACT
Scientific advances in medicine have contributed to the discovery of new forms of prevention and disease control, this coupled with the improvement of living conditions of populations in Western societies, promotes an increase in disease regression and no prospect of even longer the end of life in terminal illness. People with incurable and terminally ill, experience a variety of physical symptoms, psychological and emotional which makes them unable to fight the disease without specialized assistance, giving rise to the need for a lot of care with the aim to preserve the dignity of sick and give you the highest quality of life in the terminal phase. Palliative care promotes a holistic model that includes the physical, psychological, social, economic and spiritual care to the patient end of life, consider the sick person in their entirety, and have as main objectives the alleviation of suffering, the promotion of well-being and quality of life for the patient and his family. The confrontation with a terminal illness causes great suffering to the patient and his family, changing family dynamics and causing symptoms of anxiety and stress, so both the patient and his family have a great emotional fragility that requires specific skills and appropriate for the professionals that perform functions in palliative care services. Therefore, health professionals must possess skills essential for the proper exercise of their functions in palliative care. The basic professional training coupled with additional training throughout life is considered essential, the establishment of a humanized interpersonal relationship, the use of verbal and nonverbal effective and appropriate to each context, the practical knowledge of multidisciplinary teamwork; intrinsic personal characteristics that facilitate an contact humane, sincere and interested in the patients in end of life, however, all of these skills should be based on ethical principles essential to the exercise of clinical practice in palliative care, namely the truth about the condition of the patient respect for individual autonomy and decision-making process.
Keywords: palliative care; emotional fragility; skills