Referral To Palliative Care Essay

2. Address Mrs. Thomas’s Physical pain and decline. Explore Mrs. Thomas’s attitudes and feelings about the use of narcotics. Some patient’s choose to forgo pain medications because they fear decreased alertness and want presence with family and friends. Non-narcotic and non-sedating medication options should be explored and discussed. Help Mrs. Thomas verbalize her fears about the medications. Explain the difference between addiction and dependence. Explore Mrs. Thomas’s openness to alternative methods of pain control such as visualization, music therapy, self-hypnosis and mediation. Encourage her to listen to her body by resting when needed and participating in life when she has the energy. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas both require education about palliative care options for management of symptoms associated with her disease.

Q1: Complete the following table, describing the needs you would have to consider when planning the different aspects of end of life care for an individual

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.

Caring for patients at the end of life is a challenging task that requires not only the consideration of the patient as a whole but also an understanding of the family, social, legal, economic, and institutional circumstances that surround patient care.

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

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

Briefly describe the patient and his/her situation, diagnosis and prognosis, brief history of the disease, and how/why the patient entered palliative-focused care.

In recent years, Hospice care have risen to popularity and is being widely used among many terminally – ill patients and their families. This is evident in a report from the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, “In 2014, an estimated 1.6million – 1.7 million patients received services from Hospice” (NHPCO, 2015). It is seen that many people uses Hospice care which means that many deaths are also under the care of a Hospice program, therefore, patients and families satisfaction is a crucial factor in assessing the quality of Hospice care and how to make improvement for future services. Thus, I decided to conduct a research on patient and/or caregivers satisfaction that received care from hospice programs.

Palliative care is designed for individuals who have chronic, long-term and severe illnesses. This care option is available for patients with diverse illnesses like kidney failure, cancer, Alzheimer's disease, ADIS and other chronic diseases. No matter how old or young the patient is, our staff members provide them with the support and care that they need.

Palliative care is a relatively new concept, stemming from the hospice movement of the 1960s. This type of care focuses on the quality of life of its patients at any time in their treatment process. Palliative care is a concept that is often used synonymously with hospice care. Although it can be congregated with hospice care, they are not the same thing. Thus, it can easily be misunderstood. Sherner (2015) explains that both clinicians and people alternate palliative care and hospice. Unfortunately, she says, these people believe that palliative care implies the patient is refusing curative care. The purpose of this analysis is to explore the concept, clarify the meaning, and differentiate the concept of palliative care.

Palliative care, somewhat similar to Hospice care, focuses on relieving or preventing suffering from a life altering illness. The goal for both Palliative and Hospice care is to provide the best possible quality of life to

The World Health Organization (WHO, 2017) defines palliative care as a care that improves quality of life of patients and families who are facing problems associated with their life-threatening illness. This is by preventing and relieving suffering by the early identification, immaculate assessment, treatment of pain, and other problems like physical, psychosocial and spiritual issues. The goal to palliative care is to not only treat the patient but also provide comfort to both the patient and family members. Therefore the review of these literatures will provide insight on the barriers and specific needs that a patient with dementia may have.

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.

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