COMPREHENSIVE AND HUMANIZED HEALTHCARE: PATHWAYS TO AN INTERDISCIPLINARY PRACTICE CENTERED ON THE PERSON

Abstract

This chapter addresses comprehensive and humanized healthcare, highlighting the need to recognize the person in their entirety and not just from their clinical condition. Comprehensiveness considers the biological, psychological, social, and spiritual dimensions, valuing the needs, experiences, values, autonomy, and dignity of each individual. Humanization is presented as an essential part of the quality of care, involving empathy, respect, communication, acceptance, participation, and co-responsibility between users and professionals. In this context, interdisciplinarity plays a fundamental role, as the complexity of health needs demands the articulation between different areas of knowledge and professions. More than just bringing professionals together, interdisciplinary work presupposes communication, information sharing, joint definition of objectives, and integration of decisions, contributing to reducing fragmentation and promoting continuity of care. The chapter also shows that humanization does not depend exclusively on the individual posture of professionals, being influenced by structural, organizational, and management conditions, such as adequate resources, team size, process organization, and effective communication. Among the challenges are the overload of services, the fragmentation of practices, communication difficulties, and the need to strengthen professional training for relational skills and teamwork. It is concluded that a truly person-centered practice requires the integration of science, technology, technique, and human relations, promoting more qualified, ethical, dignified, and participatory care.