Literature Review On End Of Life Care

This is why treating the person with dignity and respect is vital in end of life care in case of an individual with dementia.

Death is inevitable. It is one of the only certainties in life. Regardless, people are often uncomfortable discussing death. Nyatanga (2016) posits that the idea of no longer existing increases anxiety and emotional distress in relation to one’s mortality. Because of the difficulty in level of care for end-of-life patients, the patient and the family often need professional assistance for physical and emotional care. Many family caregivers are not professionally trained in medicine, and this is where hospice comes into play. Hospice aims to meet the holistic needs of both the patient and the patient’s family through treatment plans, education, and advocacy. There is a duality of care to the treatment provided by hospice staff in that they do not attempt to separate the patient’s care from the family’s care. Leming and Dickinson (2011) support that hospice, unlike other clinical fields, focuses on the patient and the family together instead of seeing the patient independent of the family. Many times in hospitals, the medical team focuses solely on the goal of returning the patient back to health in order for them to return to their normal lives. They do not take into account the psychological and spiritual components of the patient’s journey and the journey that the family must take as well. For treatment of the patient, Leming and Dickinson agree that hospice does not attempt to cure patients, and instead concentrates solely

Although nurses have their experience to guide their practice, as the health professional most involved with the client at the end of life, there is a need for review of current assessment tools and management strategies to ensure the care given is evidence based and best practice.

Great strides have been made to improve end-of-life care through palliative care and hospice programs, but sometimes that’s just not enough. In America, the care that is offered to the elderly and the chronically ill is less than ideal. Statistics show that an

According to Allen et al. (2012), “millions of people with chronic illnesses endure unrelieved pain, uncontrolled physical symptoms and unresolved psychosocial or spiritual problems.” This issue occurs because palliative care is often considered a form of end-of-life care. Palliative care is a treatment that can be used for patients who suffer from chronic illnesses and diseases while receiving curative treatment. (Horowitz, Grambling & Quill, 2014) purposely states the misconceptions of palliative care and advocated for seriously ill patients that education must bring under control the misconceptions. Some patients do not receive appropriate symptom management because the palliative care treatment needed is often confused with end-of-life care. However, end-of-life care attempts to relieve pain and suffering when a disease is no longer responsive to curative treatment. Pain and suffering could ultimately be controlled or even eliminated through the proper utilization of palliative care. Patients who are not referred to palliative care in a timely manner is more likely to have poor quality of life, uncontrolled symptom management and increased amounts of visits to the emergency room during the disease process. Patients with life limiting illnesses bear the burden of increased discomfort and increased suffering. Nurses experience clinical practice issues and difficulties in the clinical setting during the delivery of comfort and symptom management. These issues

My perceptions have changed dramatically since the Clinical 1 rotation. I have noticed that the minute I walk into my patient’s room, I start to collect data. I notice if they are breathing normal, what their skin looks like, what their cognition level is, and what equipment they have in their room. I have started to connect the “puzzle pieces” of the patient’s health, rather than just feeling like I have a bunch of random information. My perception of people has continued to stay the same from Clinical 1. I continue to have an interest in learning about patients and believe that they also have something to teach us. I have learned so much from the patients and it is fun for me to get to know different

This is recognized to be an issue, and throughout the article the authors provided an understanding of how palliative care and end-of-life care are provided too late for a patient and should be provided at an earlier time in order to bring more comfort to the patients. The authors suggest that when and how end-of-life care is provided should be altered, with nursing ethics in mind, so that patients and nurses may feel better about the care they receive. This source will help my research by providing information on how changing the policies of end-of-life care and palliative care can result in the patient feeling a relief from their suffering and ultimately feeling more comfortable. This will also help my argument in how altering the current policies and focusing on providing better end-of-life care can lead to the diminishment of physician-assisted

The three articles were most relevant to the topic and explored the implications that family involvement has during end-of-life in long term care from the family perspective. The three recurrent themes that family involvement has during EOL in long term care are: improved caregiver advocacy and improved quality of end-of-life care for patients achieved through improved communication.

An individual patient solution may include actions of a clinician such as a trial of therapy (Schlairet, 2013). Providers may propose a trial of therapy for an impaired patient that may offer greater clarity as to whether or not the patient is end stage or has a likely positive outcome. An agreement to neither intensify nor expand critical care interventions should accompany the trial if the patient’s condition weakens.

Quality of Life and Functioning for End of Life Care. HAT2 Community Health Nursing. Western Governors University.

The trend I have seen throughout my healthcare experience in regards to end-of-life care is that patients with chronic debilitating

End-of-life care encompasses the aspects of helping patients and their families through the demise process, pain management, culturally sensitive practices and during ethical decision-making process (Hebert, Moore & Rooney, 2011). However that was not the case in the story of the 20-year-old Hailu, a college a freshman from the University of Nevada who was at the center of end of life controversial with St Mary’s hospital Nevada who in April 2015 was placed on life support following complications (decreased blood volume and lack of oxygen to the brain) from anesthesia after surgical procedure to remove her appendix. Hailu, in May, was declared brain dead by the doctors with no possibility of recovery and proposed on removing the life support

The author seeks to differentiate ‘end-of-life-care’ from palliative care in the context of symptom management. The former being comfort care for advanced incurable illness and the latter being the managing quality of life in acute or chronic patients. The focus of palliative care is pain management but the unpredictable referral point means patients can have an array of presenting symptoms for an indeterminate time period. Some of the symptoms include nausea, vomiting, dyspnoea, and delirium. Symptoms that can cause significant distress and discomfort to a patient if not managed. Therefore, individualized care is necessary for proper holistic treatment in palliative care.

According to the survey of WHO 2011a end of life care patient suffer unnecessarily due to underassessment and treatment of their problem due to lack of access and awareness of palliative care. Office for national statistics 2013d for bereavement survey suggests that most likely the patient with cancer receive high quality and dignified end of life of care. Survey also suggested that dignity and respect rated high in hospice and low in acute hospital settings. Patient who are very frail and have dementia, experience poor end of life care due to less involvement in advance decision process about their care (Alzheimer's society 2008).Study suggested that 40% of people who died in hospital did not need treatment and nearly most of them have been in hospital for over a month (Nation Audit office 2008).Hospital is considered least choice for end of life care so localities show the wide variation in capacity and place of

I don't know if I am in a right knowledge, but I think that many people are skeptical and somewhat hesitant when it comes to speaking about the end of life. But, being in a medical field since I came out of high school, I have always been passionate of caring geriatric population and I think one of the important innovative health care delivery model that incorporates interdisciplinary care delivery team is either palliative or hospice care. Hospice care is not only a type of care but a philosophy of care that focuses on comfort for the patient and family at the end of life. It includes management of physical emotional, and spiritual needs. Care is provided by a team that includes a physician, nurse practitioner, nurse, social worker, nursing