Palliative or Supportive Care: American Cancer Society

When I was fourteen, I went to South Korea and visited my grandmother who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. She was staying with one of my aunts in an apartment complex that restricted many of her daily activities and years later, her dementia progressed and passed away. Within the short time I spent with her, it was difficult for me to help her with her daily activities while maintaining her dignity. Therefore, when reflecting her death, I wondered about the type of care my grandmother had received. My potential learner gains from reviewing the literatures on this topic are how to successfully give a patient with dementia complete palliative care.

Opioids are effective for the treatment of acute pain, such as pain following surgery. They have also been found to be important in palliative care (hospice) to help with the severe, chronic, disabling pain that may occur in some terminal conditions such as cancer. In many cases opioids are successful long-term care strategies for those with chronic cancer pain (CCP). There are not many alternatives for those with CCP like there are for those suffering acute or chronic non cancer pain (CNCP). In one study, conducted by Furlan et al. (2006), opioids were effective in the treatment of CNCP overall; they reduced pain and improved functional outcomes better than placebo. Strong opioids (oxycodone and morphine) were significantly superior, to naproxen and nortriptyline (respectively) for pain relief but not for functional outcomes. Unfortunately, Weak opioids (propoxyphene, tramadol and codeine) did not significantly outperform NSAIDs or TCAs for either pain relief or functional outcomes. Overall, if opioids are

Step one, Geraldine pains will be monitored and documented at a regular interval by asking her to score her pain on a scale of (0-10) with 0 meaning zero pains and 10 being highly in pain. This will help in evaluating her cancer-related pain symptoms, which may involve viscera, nerve, or bone tissue. Use of rating scale aids helps in assessing level of pain and provides a tool for evaluating the effectiveness of analgesics, enhancing patient control of pain. Geraldine’s reported and unreported pain will be assessed. The discrepancy between reported and nonverbal cue can give us clues to the degree of pain, the effectiveness of

You have made excellent points. I do not believe that health care professionals neglect to treat patients in palliative care in the correct settings. The care one receives is based on what type of locations they are in. Hospitals and hospice centers often have employees with higher education levels and an increased passion for their job. I believe that health care providers want to ensure that one is comfortable at the end of life. I have visited Alive Hospice here in Nashville and was able to see the the great amount of care they provided to their patients. I have attached a link to their website below. I am curious to know your opinion on why you think one would not receive adequate care at the end-of-life phase.

Within the article, “Pain Intensity and Pain Interference in Patients With Lung Cancer”, the researchers use a combination of surveys, questionnaires, and lab results to conduct their research. All of the tools are given at a certain time, taken within a certain time

Identification of pain has been the most feared and common symptom of cancer (Sloan, et al. 1999). The joint project that includes primary, secondary and tertiary levels of care were successful in breaking down the barriers that crossed traditional boundaries in cancer care. Steering committee member were identified and meetings took place between multi-professional teams and project coordinators to identify their issues and concerns and communication, discharge, pain management and symptom control were identified. Multidisciplinary groups worked were

The United States needs to provide more hospice care awareness. Hospice care provides services for individuals who have six months or less to live. They are able to enjoy the end of their lives rather than using physician assisted suicide.

Pain, which is defined in its widest sense as an emotion which is the opposite of pleasure (White, 2004, p.455), is one of the major symptoms of cancer, affecting a majority of sufferers at some point during their condition (De Conno & Caraceni, 1996, p.8). The World Health Organization (WHO, 2009, online) suggests that relief from pain may be achieved in more than 90 percent of patients;

t is not always possible to recover fully from cancer. When the treatment does not succeed, the disease is called terminal or advanced cancer. Diagnosis is very stressful for many patients to discuss. It is however crucial to have an honest and open discussion with the healthcare team or doctor to express concerns, preferences, and feelings. Patients with advanced cancer and expected to live for less than six months should consider palliative care known as hospice. Hospice care is intended to provide the possible best quality life for people near the end of life. Personally, I chose this topic because I have many friends that smoke or have smoked in their lives and I wanted to prove to them all of the vast impairments and damages that a single

According to Lossignol (2012, p.10) cancer treatment can also result in pain, thus, two major ways to alleviate the pain include considering the aetiology

Cancer is not to be taken lightly. This disease does happen to a number of people all over the world every day. A thorough understanding of cancer is vital. This education will provide patients and their loved ones with crucial information about available treatments and how best to cope with the effects of having cancer. This article contains much advice on helping cancer patients cope with the deadly disease.

Treating pain associated with cancer is very complex. Significant factors with the initial intensity of pain are metastasis to the bony area, temporary pain despite administering other pain medications, below the age of 60-year-old and bad result in the (KPS) Karnofsky performance scale (Caraceni & Portenoy, 1999).

A comprehensive assessment of breakthrough cancer pain which also examines whether the pain is caused by uncontrolled background pain should be completed for every patient at every incident of pain (European Oncology Nursing Society, 2013). It is important to distinguish breakthrough cancer pain from uncontrolled background pain, as the two types of pain are different and require individual assessment and therapy (Davies et al. 2009; Mercadante et al, 2002; Mercadante, 2011). Davies et al. (2009) have adapted a previous diagnostic algorithm created by Portenoy et al (1999), which aids practitioners to distinguish between breakthrough cancer pain and uncontrolled background pain- see figure 3.

What is pain? Generally, it is an unpleasant sensory feeling that is triggered by the body's nervous system in response to an adverse affect and is often categorized as acute or chronic. Because of the many different aspects of pain, it varies from each individual. Experiences that may cause pain in one individual may or may not cause pain at the same level which makes this a highly subjective symptom. Previously, medical professionals relied solely on their patients report of pain. However, as time and medicine have evolved, pain has been incorporated into general patient assessments and has further been referred to as the fifth vital sign,

305). The abstract of this article is instrumental in providing the reader with a clear summary of the study. A brief overview, the aim to explore the experiences of breakthrough pain among palliative patients, is followed by the research problem, palliative patients are experiencing significant suffering because of breakthrough pain (Pathmawathi, Beng, Li, Rosli, Sharwend, Kavitha, & Christopher, 2015, p.552). Pathmawathi et al, (2015), describes the study design as qualitative study, of 21 palliative patient’s suffering from breakthrough pain, based open-ended interviews that generated five (5) different major themes (discussed in research findings) (p. 552). Additionally, the authors made recommendations to assess the five major themes discovered to include using non-pharmacologic approaches, education and guidance on pain management and the use of more sensitive approaches related to pain perception by healthcare workers (Pathmawathi et al., 2015,