Communication in Palliative Care: a Bibliometric Study

Objective: This study's aim has been to analyze the bibliometric indicators of research on communication used in palliative care. Methods: This bibliometric study was carried out with a sample consisting of 67 articles published during the period 2007-2016 and available in LILACS, MEDLINE and Scielo electronic databases. Results: The analysis of the indicators showed that there was a significant, albeit non-progressive, growth of studies on palliative care and communication in the last ten years. The year of 2016 stood out as the one with the highest number of studies (22%). Internationalization of the research on the subject was verified since most of the articles were published in international journals (80.6%) in English (76.2%). Conclusion: There is a need for developing research with a higher level of evidence on palliative care and communication that can be applied to patient care.