Palliative Care And Hospice Care

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

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

Nurses also provide end of life, and post mortem care. When a patient dies, the nurse often grieves alongside the family and helps to provide them with emotional support (Hecktman, 2012). Although the prognoses of childhood cancer have improved drastically over the last 30 years, many children still succumb to the disease. Nurses are the ones who provide constant bedside care, and often “must confront the limits of what medicine can do for people” (Schuster, 2013). This can prove to be difficult and bring on feelings of hopelessness and as though they are not helping their patients at all. Patients can leave lasting impacts on the nursing staff, and when multiple children die while in their care, the nurse may begin to experience cumulative loss. Childhood cancer is the leading cause of non-accidental death for children in Canada, and therefore, pediatric oncology nurses are often exposed to death on a routine basis, with little time to grieve between the deaths. It is imperative that nurses are aware of their stressors and how they respond to stress in order to effectively care for their patients.

“Each year in the United States, approximately 50,000 children die and 500,000 children cope with life-limiting conditions” (Varela et al., 2012, p. 171). According to the Department of Health children’s “palliative care is centered on services that cater for young patients with a range of life-limiting and life-threatening conditions” (Department of Health (DH) 2008, Spathis et al 2012).

Another disparity recognized is the standards of care from one palliative care or hospice care center to another. The varying degrees of care are due to lack of education and standards of care. The Center to Advance Palliative Care has recommendations for hospice and palliative care centers to measure and monitor care standards. These guidelines will help quantify data and allow for process improvement to occur among hospice and palliative care facilities. These improvements essentially allow for better education standards and improved standards of care within the hospice and palliative care centers. The most essential part of the paradigm that is palliative and hospice care is the patient. In the article, Is This Palliative care’s Moment,

According to the parents, physicians mainly focused on the physical symptoms of the child. Most of the psychological symptoms of both the child and the parent were not acknowledged by health professionals (Theunissen et al., 2007). Despite this result, there have been substantial research conducted to create measures that can gauge the quality and effect of palliative care mostly for adults. However, data collected from these studies may be applied to interventions created to help children with cancer.

Pediatric palliative care is both a philosophy and an organized program. It often includes but is not

Palliative/Hospice Care: Necessity or Extension of Healthcare: a topic chosen to obtain clarity of services, while questioning who is benefiting, patients or the healthcare system

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.

Hospice care should not be confused with palliative care (Hui, Mori, & Parsons, 2013). People outside of the medical world have a tendency to use hospice and palliative interchangeably, but they are not the same (Hui, Mori, & Parsons, 2013). While both focus on “quality of life care,” hospice care focuses more on people that have close to six months or less to live (Hui, Mori, & Parsons, 2013). Palliative care is broader than hospice care (Hui, Mori, & Parsons, 2013). Palliative care focuses on relieving pain and comforting the patient and their family

One of the issues in the health sector is pediatric palliative care. Pediatric palliative care has gained more recognition, opportunities and availability in the past few years. It is a model of care that focuses on both patients with life-limiting diseases and their family members. In pediatric palliative care, the model of care lays more emphasis on children having life-limiting diseases and their family members. In pediatrics, family members of the child are also affected. Pediatric palliative care focuses on ensuring that the quality of life of the sick child and the family improves. It achieves this by ensuring that they are provided with appropriate relief from symptoms, stress and pains caused by the illness.

Palliative Care for Children: Enhancing the Quality of Life for a Child with a Life-Threatening Illness

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.

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