Philosophy And Principles Of Palliative Care

Palliative care is a holistic approach to support a patients symptoms who have an advanced progressive condition. Healthcare professional’s objectives are for the patient and families to have the best quality of life throughout their illness, this also involves psychological, social and spiritual support (NCPC, 2015).

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

Depending on a person’s physical and mental state, will depend on whether they are able to complete their end of life care planning. If an individual is unable to plan their end of life care then key people like next of kin, friends or social worker will plan their end of life care, using background information about the individual, trying at best to keep to their religious beliefs and wishes.

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

Our end of life care is offered by a multi-discipline team that supports patients and manages illnesses. Throughout the process, our team provides the emotional, physical and spiritual support that patients need to feel comfortable. Our services include medical social services, supportive nursing care, bereavement support, volunteer support, medical equipment, pain management and respite care.

They must both recommend that the patient notifies their family members and have a living will in place.

The assessments of the patient in an end of life situation must occur frequently as to detect rapid and/or minimal changes in the patient’s condition. It is also the primary nurse’s role to report any and all changes to the multidisciplinary team, including the family members.

It is important to remember that care of the patient does not end when the patient dies. After the death there is still work to be done in the form of comforting the bereaved family members. It has been reported that some

Care and support needs should be tailored to suit each individual, by checking their care plan, to learn more about them and their likes and dislikes, such as; what food do they like and want to eat, how they want to be addressed (as one should not assume they can call someone by their first name), etc. This shows respect by preserving the individual’s dignity and individuality. Their personal beliefs should always be respected.

According to Forbes (2014), transparency of care through communication, including patients ' opinions of care, improves patient outcomes. To improve the overall coordination of care requires thoroughly communicating to families. Inform families and patients on what to expect when dying in an easily understood way will ultimately improve the care and result in a positive outcome.

Palliative care is an umbrella term for any medical treatment that manages the pain, symptoms, and side effects of a chronic illness. This support can be provided any stage of the illness, alongside curative treatment, such as dialysis, chemotherapy, radiation, blood products, antibiotics and respiratory/circulatory support (Kelley and Morrison 2017). Hospice, by contrast, is a system of interdisciplinary care that provides services ranging from symptom management to bereavement services for patients and their families that generally have less than six months life expectancy (Hui et al 2013). Both palliative care and hospice care provide comfort. But palliative care can begin at diagnosis, and at the same time as treatment. Hospice care begins after treatment of the disease is stopped and when it is clear that the person is not going to survive their illness.

End of life care is something that is becoming extremely prevalent today. This end of life care is referred to as Hospice. Here, patients who are terminally ill may be placed in Hospice care, where they will be under constant supervision and will be cared for. However, although Hospice is an ongoing process that exists everyday, there are few people who really know exactly what Hospice is and what it consists of. Upon further reading, it is hopeful that one will get a better sense of understanding about Hospice.

The increasing numbers of vulnerable adults in the United Kingdom has been accompanied several care challenges and policy makers caught their attention to do their part and come up with legislations to combat or overcome these challenges. Giving support and providing care for an individual in their last stage or end of life is a difficult thing to do. End of life care aims to put the person at the centre of the caring process, they should be involved in every decision to make when it comes to their personal care, maintain and enhance quality of life for the person involve and family if possible and provide bereavement support for families and carers after someone passed away. In lieu to this, this will not be possible if not being back up by legislation to oversee that quality care is delivered at the highest possible.

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

Key importance of the palliative care approach in nursing is for it to be responsive, rather than