Essay on Palliative Care in Health Care

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

A survey was conducted in 2000 on more than 9,000 patients discharged from more than 2,000 hospices on the services they received (Carlson, 2007). It revealed that 22% of them received five major palliative care services, which varied among the hospices. These palliative care services were nursing care, physician care, medication management, psychological care, and caregiver support. Approximately 14% of the hospices provided all five services and 33% provided only one or two services. Only 59% of these patients received medication management services. These included administering medication, dispensing correct dosages, and setting and following dosage schedule.

Before I started this class I thought palliative care was only used as end of life care, or for when a curative treatment was unavailable or had failed. As we learned about the different models of care, and how they have changed over the years, it became evident that the use of palliative care has changed drastically over the past several decades. In the 1800s to 1900s, palliative care was only used once the patient had reached the dying stage, and only included the patient in this care, not their families1. Before taking this course, this is what I thought of palliative care as well. Since the late 1900s though, palliative care has been used in a more proactive approach. From the moment an individual receives a life threatening illness, palliative care begins. This includes caring for the family of the patient as well. This care increases as the patient’s illness progresses, and even continues for the family after the death of the patient. Learning this has really made an impact on how I would like to work as a

Within the dementia care environment, it is my experience that it is often unclear to nursing staff as to appropriate assessment and management of pain for clients in the palliative stage of their illness.

Nurses: Assist the patients and families to cope with the end-of-life process such as assessing and

The present-day misconception of palliative care possibly comes from the circumstance that palliative care was used interchangeably with hospice care until the 1980s. (Clark & Seymour, 1999). Clark and Seymour (1999) extensively write on the beginnings and evolution of palliative care. They describe the progression of palliative care as a whole and explain the movement from palliative starting out as supplemental care to terminal patients to the concept division of palliative and hospice care. They describe the differences in each and explain why palliative is its own concept that differentiates from hospice care. In 2002, the World Health Organization defined palliative care as “an approach” that increases the quality of life of

Despite significant advances in the multidisciplinary approach of palliative care and the growing body of evidence-based practice, a multitude of variables continue to interfere with excellence in end-of-life care for everyone (Anonymous, 2007). Because of this the primary nurse must be diligent in administering the proper medications to allow the patient to have minimal pain or suffering and provide emotional support and reassurance to family members, and possibly fellow staff members

In almost every case of a terminal disease, pain is intolerable and seeing someone in such agony is heartbreaking. For example, Brittany Maynard, a 29 year old brain cancer patient who had to move to Oregon so she can avail of the Death with Dignity act. “Maynard knew that her form of brain cancer would be excruciating. She would endure swelling of the brain that would very likely cause seizures, painful headaches and the gradual loss of bodily function. Doctors know that for about 5 percent of the population, no amount of morphine can block the agonizing pain the terminally ill endure” (EDITORIAL: Dying with dignity). Palliative care can often be provided for the dying patients and alleviating pain to provide comfort for the dying has always been the priority. “Palliative care focuses on relieving the symptoms, particularly the pain, of incurable illness.” (Palliative Care) But, in relieving pain through the prescribed medications there are also side effects that are caused by the prescribed pain suppressors and two examples will be lethargy and it compromises breathing. In most cases the effectivity of the pain medication may no longer alleviate the pain. If a patient will be in such agony for the remaining days or weeks the quality of life is no longer present. The agony of pain prevents a patient from performing even just the bodily functions.

According to Dunphy et al. (2016), “palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problems associated with life-threatening illness through the prevention and relief of suffering by means early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems-physical, psychosocial, and spiritual” (p. 1198). The role of APN, in the continuum of care for the patients with chronic, irreversible disease, is critically important. The article that you chose to critique, analyzed the utilization of a nurse practitioner-directed Primary Pallitive Care clinic for the improvement of sympotms management among patients with life-limiting illness and decrease in their use of emergency room.

Palliative care is a profession dedicated to relieving the pain of those who are gravely ill. At first glance, it seems like it would be a widely respected profession. After all, who likes pain? However, as the many decades of political debate have shown us, anything that has to do with healthcare is complicated. As one study from the Canadian medical association journal shows us, many people still have a very widely negative of palliative care. As the study highlights, many patients panicked when they said they were being seen by a palliative care team. They thought that they were being relegated to death. However, even though a negative view of palliative care persists in today's culture, one magazine insists that this view may be changing.

As the field of Palliative medicine and care grows, resources for these patients are increasingly becoming available, but not at a rate which is able to adequately provide for the demand. Even when facilities do provide palliative care providers, they are often underutilized due to a unique triad of issues, including, lack of best practice provisions due to the developing nature of palliative care evidence-based research, provider misunderstanding of the intent and nature of palliative care, resulting in failure to integrate palliative care into their practices, and wariness concerning relinquishing care to palliative services for fear of increased mortality, signifying a misunderstanding of the collaborative nature of medicine with regard

Palliative care is a service provided by trained medical professionals to provide comfort to the patient that is suffering from a serious illness. Many people do not have a clear understanding of what palliative care is and how it provides relief for the patient, as well as the patient’s family. There is a definite need for education on this topic as well as many other topics concerning patient education and safety. The Joint Commission (2016) launched a Speak Up™ campaign in 2002 and one of the main topics the campaign focuses on is palliative care. The brochure offered is titled What You Need to Know About Your Serious Illness and Palliative Care (The Joint Commission, 2016) and is available for the public to download or print at no cost. The brochure provides useful information on what services are provided and where you can receive those services. It includes other information that is not only beneficial to a patient, but a patient’s family member, or anybody who knows someone that may benefit from palliative care.

Palliative care teams help treat people suffering from the symptoms and stress of serious illnesses such as cancer, congestive heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,kidney, disease, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and many more. Symptoms of patients submitting to palliative care many include depression, pain, shortness of breath, fatigue, constipation, nausea, loss of appetite, difficulty sleeping and much more (Get palliative care organization).

However, this reasoning misrepresents the medical facts concerning terminal illness. According to the American Medical Association, the physical pain of most patients suffering from a life-threatening illness can be successfully managed through medication. Advances in drugs and medical technology have allowed physicians to help control physical suffering of most patients. But someone may ask: "What about the few whose pain can't be managed?" There is indeed a moral and practical recourse for them and their families, preferable to suicide, the age-old practice of

* Attention to residents’ transition from active curative care to palliative care (with comfort care and symptom management) requires that care team members provide the resident and their families with sufficient information about the transition process to facilitate decision making. This provision of information can reduce residents’ and families’ concerns and increase their satisfaction regarding the appropriateness of a palliative approach.