End Of Life Care Case Study

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

I must respect the right of my residents but also to ensure their behaviour doesn't harm themselves and others

Having a dignified approach and respecting elderly patients in a palliative care unit is important because it is enabling them to have control over their care and treatment. This is going to help the patient to feel valued and throughout their last days of life, as they have a choice. (Social care institute for excellence, 2010). By making the patient feel as comfortable and as pain-free as possible, it will help encourage family members to respond in a positive way. This is because they are seeing that their relative is in a comfortable state.

The end of life care strategy implemented by the Department of Health 2008 outlined a framework which aims to promote high quality of care for all adults in the United Kingdom who are at the end stage of their lives (The National Council for Palliative Care, 2012). This strategy focuses on the following factors: being treated as an individual, with respect and maintaining dignity, being without pain and other symptoms, being familiar with the surrounding and being with close friends and immediate family.

Trust and honesty: As a support worker, the clients are entrusted into our care with regards their living, safety and health. This quality assures the clients that they are safe with us.

Picking just three important characteristics for human services is hard because all of them play an important role. You picked three good characteristics as well. The biggest one you have is having a passion to help other because that is what human services about. Human service is supposed to help others to get to their maximum potential along the way of their journey (Martin, 2014).

Palliative care is care given to terminally-ill patients and their families in order to improve the overall quality of living through physical, emotional and spiritual support. It aims to shift the focus from Euthanasia and death, to preserving and improving the sanity of life to the greatest extent possible.

Palliative care was designed as a state of the art measure that alleviated suffering in the patents which allows for better communication to be transpired between the health care team that will alleviate strains for the healthcare members. Clinicians need to be more involved and advocate for consultation based upon identifiable triggers requiring consultation, and elicits feedback from staff about certain interventions. The clinicians acting as an advocate for the patients must remain knowledgeable in recognizing the shift in the patient’s course that indicates the need for palliative care and communicate poor prognoses and outcomes with the patients, loved ones, and offer palliative care when death is prominent. Despite the many barriers identified here, clinician must be champion for palliative care on both hospital, unit, and as well as, on the level of the patient. (Perrin & Kazanowski, 2015)

Hospice care is for someone who has a life expectancy of six months or less, seeking non curative treatment, and has a physician's referral to receive hospice services. Not only does hospice provide care to someone with a cancer diagnosis, but it also provides care to any other terminal diagnoses. A few examples of other terminal diagnoses are dementia, pulmonary and cardiac diseases, and failure to thrive. Palliative care is provided for the patient "to help increase the quality of remaining life" (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2014, p. 553). In addition, hospice provides support for both the patient and the entire family. Hospice services can be provided in a variety of settings such as a long term care facility, an acute care hospital, or in the

The Center of Advanced Palliative Care defines palliative care as “an interdisciplinary approach of patients diagnosed with life-threatening illness along with their families” (Zalonis and Slota, 2014, p.707). As noted in a letter to the editor for the publication of Palliative Medicine periodical, a better definition of a “palliative care patient might be based on need of services, rather than underlying disease or process” (Groninger, 2013, p. 982).

RCN (2008) highlights dignity is concerned with how people fee, think and behave in relation to the value of themselves and others. To treat the patient dignity the way that is respectful of them as valued individuals in a non-judgemental environment. People received palliative care are one group who may have particularly sensitive needs in term of their condition, symptom, psychological problem and life expectancy (Gustafsson et al, 2014). As the health

Dignity-conserving care is essential to providing effective palliative care because the clients at the dying phase are particularly vulnerable to loss of many aspects of dignity, including respect, autonomy, rights and privacy, due to their physical, psychological and spiritual sufferings in the dying process5.

If a person is close to the end of life, they are entitled to high quality of palliative care to manage pain and current

I have been a registered nurse at UCLA for 18 months. One particular issue that has captured my attention is the utilization of palliative care in health care. Because nurses are generally at the bedside all the time, they have an important role to play in voicing the importance of its utilization and implementation in the patient’s care.