Aromatherapy Essay

The World Health Organisation (2010) defines palliative care as: An approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing problems associated with life threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial and spiritual. It is also our duty to support John and his wife`s in their decision for John to die at home, Department of health (2008) patients should have a choice over the care they receive and where.

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

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

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

Palliative care is a relatively new concept. Palliative care programs have become more numerous and better utilized since 2000 and continue to grow. It is now accepted that the palliative care model is appropriate for patients with life-limiting illnesses. Chan et al. (2013) stated that the ultimate goal of palliative care is to relieve suffering and to maximize the quality of life for dying patients and their families, regardless of the stage of illness or the need for other medical treatments (p. 133). As life-expectancy increases, there is a growing need for these services. People are living longer with chronic diseases and palliative care services can provide an extra layer of support to patients and their families. Evidence has shown that 13% - 36% of hospital inpatients qualify for palliative care services (Robinson, Gott, & Ingleton, 2014).

The team that provides this service are all highly trained medical professionals that include physicians, nurses, patient care technicians, counselors, and chaplains to offer support. Studies have shown that palliative care is effective in relieving pain and symptom distress with expert precision. It also helps with difficult decision making, reduces confusion, anxiety and stress for the patient and family. Palliative also supports the family in their care giving role, offering advice, instruction, and referral services. (Baycare,

There are many essential oils used in aromatherapy which have several healing properties. For example, peppermint oil can be used to relieve chest congestion, fevers, and pains in the joints of the body.

Aromatherapy can be used to treat many problems such as nausea, body aches, anxiety, depression, fatigue, headaches, labour pain and hormonal problems (Lane et al., 2011; Medicalnewstoday.com, 2018). Aromatherapy can be used in addition to other medicine practises including those performed by allied health professionals, or on its own (Medicalnewstoday.com, 2018). For example, a study conducted by (Olapour et al., 2013) has found that aromatherapy can provide pain relief to women who have recently had a

In this essay, I will determine how and to what extent aromatherapy should be tested to see its scientific validity. Science is ever changing, hypothesis built on top on ranging hypotheses, theory after theory continually being ratified and disproved, never-ending ideas of experiments, case studies, and surveys; these all furthering of human understanding of this world. Mainstream science can also often be classified as pseudoscience because it has hence been disproven, but not to the extent where the general public accepts or even realizes its apocryphalness. Aromatherapy is partially under this category because there is no definitive research proving either way because of the challenges in research, but in order to be determined scientifically

Palliative care is a system of holistic care aimed to satisfy the requirements of the chronically ill, typically within their home and community rather than as an in-patient1. Hospice is based on the same principles of care, however, it requires that a patient be deemed with six months or less to live and that life-sustaining treatments be ceased, creating an important distinction between the two. Hospice and palliative care both provide comfort, but hospice is for comfort during end-of-life. Pain and palliative care patients have indicated that receiving that care not only reduced their pain that was once intolerable either completely or to a substantial extent, but it also maintained or increased their hope and outlook on life1. In this country, palliative medicine is a relatively new field of medicine. It wasn’t until 2014 that the WHO began to recognize “palliative and end of life care services as essential and integral to health systems worldwide”2.

In the meantime, your kitchen may well provide the basic ingredients for some surprisingly powerful mood-boosting aromatherapy: From the scent of vanilla to that of freshly baked apple pie with cinnamon, both of which are calming and mood enhancing, to various citrus fruits, especially grapefruit, orange, lemon, or lime, you probably have everything you need right at

Having a pet that is sick or injured can be hard; you want to provide relief without using the harsh man-made medicines that can be more harmful with side effects, etc. However what can we do for our four-legged babies? This was my dilemma wanting to help my dog I went on the hunt for alternatives. I found Hobbs book for using essential oils for our pets. I personally didn’t know that aromatherapy could be used for pets. Nevertheless the author’s writing style is so wonderfully written, easy to read and understand helping me to get started with basic how-tos. I personally wish there had been more but you can’t go wrong with what Hobbs has provided. I loved that not only I found out what oils are best for certain aliments such as the cinnamon/clove/rosemary/lemon

I have always believed that health cannot be optimized through the treatment of disease only. Rather, health should be addressed on a biological, physical, psychological, social, and spiritual continuum. Palliative care addresses an often-overlooked aspect of the patient experience, which is symptom management of their chronic illnesses. Health care professionals tend to treat acute episodes of

Researchers at the University of Northumbria found that Rosemary essential oils enhanced the ability for people to remember events and to complete tasks at particular times. The researchers are building on their previous research that rosemary improves long-term and mental arithmetic. The experiment showed that people who were in the rosemary scented room performed better than the people in the room with no scent. Also, in this experiment it was tested to see if the scent would change people’s moods, but the rosemary aroma had not effect on the participants’. The researchers have now proven that rosemary aromas increases long-term memory, mental arithmetic, and remembering event and particular times to complete tasks. And that aromas can influence

3. Palliative Care Council of South Australia. (1996). Good palliative care project: final report. Retrieved September 4, 2002, from Palliative Care Council of So