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Palliative Care : A Type Of Health Care For Patients And Families

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Palliative care is a type of health care for patients and families facing life-threatening illness, and helps patients maintain their dignity and quality of life so close to the end. During my clinical at Rosthern Hospital, I had a few experiences with patients and their end of life care. In these situations the patients, their families, and the healthcare team have been confronted with many ethical dilemmas. At Rosthern, there were three different patients who had a difficult time during their end of life care. T. C. was in his early 80’s and he did not have do not resuscitate (DNR) order, so when he coded, he received CPR and was revived. Aftern his resuscitation he had crippling deficits in his memory and much of his motor function. M. T. was in her 70’s, and she was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer and deteriorated quite quickly. Finally, H. M. was in his 80’s and was expected to pass quickly, so he was moved to palliative care room before Christmas, but since then has lived longer than expected, and has received palliative care for quite some time. It is important to remember than in palliative care the patient is the priority, and according to Dr. Aveyard (2004), when a patient denies care, “care cannot be given. To do so would be infringing on patient autonomy and to contravene the principles of consent” (2004, p. 1). I analyzed my experience with these patients at Rosthern Hospital using the Carper’s Five Ways of Knowing (1978) and I will reflect upon palliative

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