Palliative Care And End Of Life Care

.“As medical technology continues to advance and health care choices become more complicated, the preservation of end-of-life autonomy is an increasingly important issue faced by various client populations.” (Galambos, 1998).

The purpose of this paper is to examine communication strategies related to palliative and end-of-life care with a focus on Aboriginal clients. Firstly, I will explain the role of cultural competence in the nursing care of an Aboriginal client. Secondly, I will argue the cultural challenges a nurse may face when caring and communicating with Aboriginal clients receiving palliative end-of-life care. Thirdly, I will present solutions to the aforementioned communicative challenges. Lastly, I will discuss the impact I believe this experience may have on my future practice.

Key people could be family, doctors, carers, religious leaders etc. Each may own distinctive role to play in order for the choices and preferences of the individual to be respected and carried out. [ Every person’s end-of-life trajectory is different and needs differ in intensity and quality over time. End-of-life care must adapt to the varying and changing needs of the individual over time and that it cannot be limited to certain settings or services. The provision of good

Over the past five weeks, I have learned what palliative care really is all about. I found that there were areas that really changed my perspective as well, about what palliative care is. Some of these include, but are not limited to, when palliative care is used, how difficult is can be to get patients the pain management they need, as well as how many different complimentary therapies are available to patients.

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

End of Life Care Planning is a controversial topic that is huge dilemma in healthcare. The average Medicare expenditures per person over the last two years of life was $102, 939.00 (Harter, 2015). One quarter of traditional Medicare spending for health care is for services provided to Medicare beneficiaries in their last year of life (The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, 2016). Nurses deal with ethical dilemmas when caring for patients at the end of life. Nurses are responsible in minimizing unwanted treatment and patient suffering, which can sometimes be interfered by what family members want and the patient wishes (American Nurses Association [ANA], 2012). This paper will go over why end of life care planning should and should be covered as a covered expense.

They provide the opinions of nurses nationwide and analyze suggestions from a large number of nurses to improve the care provided to patients at the end of their life. Since there are many suggestions as to how end-of-life care can be improved from not only a specific area of the United States but from nurses representing the nation as a whole, this proves that the care provided to these patients had become an issue. The authors have expertise in the nursing profession and have all acquired their PhD, proving that this is a reliable source. I will use this in my research paper to explore different ways of improving end-of-life care to help patients feel comfortable and how improving the system can cause physician-assisted suicide to no longer be

The terminally ill think about not only their life but how their decisions will impact their family after passing. They turn this fear of disappointment into a burdensome feeling which make them feel as if they family does not want to take care of them or take on their issues. Studies conducted by the NCBI, in “Patients’ Experiences of Being a Burden on Family in Terminal Illness” show how when asking participants about end of life care their response was they “wanted to feel that they were not being a burden on family or society was one of the eight factors rated as important by most patients but not seen as important by most of the doctors.” By allowing patients to seek PAS, they are opening the door to liquidate this feeling. If a patient knows he or she can take PAS to resolve these worries in the end they will have a more peaceful transition into

The significance of addressing psychosocial concerns with dying patients is essential to assure a peaceful closure in end-of-life care. The social worker's role is to provide competent, psychosocial intervention with patients and families.

End-of-life care encompasses the aspects of helping patients and their families through the demise process, pain management, culturally sensitive practices and during ethical decision-making process (Hebert, Moore & Rooney, 2011). However that was not the case in the story of the 20-year-old Hailu, a college a freshman from the University of Nevada who was at the center of end of life controversial with St Mary’s hospital Nevada who in April 2015 was placed on life support following complications (decreased blood volume and lack of oxygen to the brain) from anesthesia after surgical procedure to remove her appendix. Hailu, in May, was declared brain dead by the doctors with no possibility of recovery and proposed on removing the life support

When a person comes to the point of time at which they are at the end of their life, whether it is due to their age, natural causes or because an accident has happened, end-of-life care becomes a key component in their given situation. For most people, their families, whether it be their husband or their wife, their children, or even their parents, have to be the ones to make decisions about that care. This end-of-life care involves many decisions that most people do not want to make but have to, whether it is to prolong this person’s life or deciding to let them go peacefully and without any pain. In this paper, I will discuss one particular case, that of Terri Schiavo, and her end-of-life care.

Nurses provide guidance and address the problems in the end-of-life decision-making process. It is the nurse’s role to explain to families and other healthcare professionals when an advance directive would be put to use. An advance directive serves as a guide for clinicians to respect and honor the autonomous decision of the patient when they are in a position to not be able to express their wishes (Roux & Halstead, 2009). Nurses could assist in ensuring the patient needs are met along with protecting their rights. The registered nurse act as client advocates in health maintenance and clinical care (Standards of Nursing conduct or practice, 2003). Advocating for patients could bring implications such as conflicts with physician and

End of life decision making and care are critical aspects of the delivery of patient centered healthcare. Advances in scientific knowledge and medical technology can now prolong the dying process indefinitely. Many Americans fear the possibility of dying a painful, protracted, or undignified death, in an institutional setting, absent personal control or meaning (Schwarz, 2004). With the modernizations of medical technology today, individuals are now given the option to choose how, when and where they die. This topic has prompted many ethical and legal debates regarding end of life care. As a result it has made it challenging for nurses and other healthcare professionals to provide appropriate care. Nurses need to incorporate the American Nurses Association (ANA) Code of Ethics and the professional standards of the Association of Hospice and Palliative Care Nurses when addressing end of life issues.

Why is it that people, in general, do not want to think about the end of their life journey?

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.