Role of a Palliative Care Nurse Essay

Nurses in specialty care continue to change the health care system to meet the needs of patients regardless of the setting. Hospice and palliative care is an area of nursing specialty care that has grown since the 1970s when it began (Cowen and Moorhead, 2011). Leaders in nursing identify change that is needed and discover ways to make the changes possible. The leadership in nursing brought forth attention for patients with terminal illness. Nurses defined hospice and palliative care, developed core principles, practices, provided education and then pushed for the care to be available in multiple settings (Cowen and Moorhead, 2011). The continued growth in this specialty area of nursing is related to the positive outcomes of patients that have

Nurses: Assist the patients and families to cope with the end-of-life process such as assessing and

My perception of palliative and Hospice care has changed slightly when it comes to communication with the family. I walked into the hospice unit mentally preparing myself to talk with patient families about their loved one and the dying process; this was certainly not the case. The family and the patient did not want to be bothered unless comfort interventions needed to be carried out and there was no conversation to be had about the patient and his situation. This shows that each family is different, each patient is different; and we need to respect and accommodate their unique

Despite significant advances in the multidisciplinary approach of palliative care and the growing body of evidence-based practice, a multitude of variables continue to interfere with excellence in end-of-life care for everyone (Anonymous, 2007). Because of this the primary nurse must be diligent in administering the proper medications to allow the patient to have minimal pain or suffering and provide emotional support and reassurance to family members, and possibly fellow staff members

Dying is a process that involves the entire family; that is to say, the family that is defined by the person. The nurse must be aware that this is not only an individual process but a family process. This involves recognizing family dynamics and communication patterns and facilitating healthy interactions.

Nurses are a respected part of our community. They’re trained and educated to help heal, teach, and offer supportive care. Nurses can specialize in different areas, one would be the hospice field. Hospice patients typically have six months or less to live. Hospice will normally be provided in the patient’s home; however, the patient may also receive hospice care in the hospital, nursing care facility, or a family member’s home (“Home Health Care And Hospice Nursing”). According to Lauren Douglas, RN, while providing care in the home, the nurse must come prepared, and be expected to professionally and efficiently give outstanding care (Douglas). Hospice nurses often provide, teach, and monitor wound care, provide blood draws, as well as administer, and organize medications. Some hospice nurses will provide chemo-therapy and

According to the American Cancer Society, one of the key differences between hospitalization and hospice care is that family and friends provide the majority of care. Hospice volunteers work as much with the family as with the patient. They may teach family members how to change dressings, remove a catheter, administer medicine, use bed pans, use a hospital bed, or assist in the dying in other ways. In a hospital setting, doctors, nurses and other healthcare specialists provide the majority of care. The hospice team of professional consists of a doctor, who serves as a medical director, nurses who provide direct care and case management, home health aides, social workers,

I would like to be a hospice nurse practitioner in the future. I worked in the cancer center for two years when I was in Taiwan. Most of our patients were underline with solid cancer which included Nasopharynx cancer, esophageal cancer, gastric cancer, pancreas cancer, colon cancer and liver cancer. The characteristics of solid cancer illness are long-term progression which means their five-year survival rate usually higher than hematology patients. A lot of patients in our nurse station kept in-and-out for more than two years, therefor, we build deep and strong relationship with them. As a result, we not only concerned about patients’ health condition, also we pay more attention on their quality of life. However, being a hospice nurse need professional knowledge background, also they need counseling skills to help patients, family members and caregivers to deal with sorrow and feeling of lost. To be a professional hospice nurse practitioner, there are several counseling skills are very crucial.

When I thought of Hospice, I thought of sick elderly people who are unable to do anything for themselves and are bedridden. I did not think about all the roles that the hospice nurse plays while working or even when they are not working. I did not think of the families of the patients we would visit or what they might be going through, because I have not been exposed to Hospice. I have taken care of people that were on comfort care, but Hospice was different. I enjoyed my experience following the Hospice nurse and visiting different patients. We only had three patients to visit, but I was still able to learn new lessons.

Hospice’s main focus is on the patients and their needs. As shown on www.nhpco.org, the website for the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, their vision for patients and families is one where individuals and families facing serious illness, death, and grief will experience the best that humankind can offer (National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, 1). With this in mind, those who are involved with Hospice work to provide patients with relief from their symptoms and try to lift the weight off of their shoulders, also known as the Palliative Care part of Hospice. Hospice care involves a team-oriented approach, where members of the organization will work together to ensure the the patient, and their family as well, receive compassionate care (National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, 1). This includes physical care, such as pain management, emotional care, such as relieving stress, and spiritual care. Emotional and spiritual

Multidisciplinary team. Palliative care is a consultative discipline led by physician (Billings & Pantilat, 2001). Palliative care requires multi-disciplinary support including buy-in from medical institutions and hospital leadership (Danis et al., 1999). Healthcare providers involved in palliative care include, but are not limited to: anesthesia personnel, chaplains, psychiatrists, internal medicine physicians, palliative care nurses, social workers, psychosocial and psychiatric advanced practice nurses, and hospital administrators (Lynch,

Nurses are expected to provide physicians with quality assessments and needs of their patients to ensure when a change from curative care to palliative care is needed and to ensure good death. Death has always caused an ethical

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.

Palliative care is very stressful for all the health workers especially for the nurses and there is a special stressors which Karen Paradise may mention as involvement for patients Personal settings Identification with the patients ,Self-esteem ,Feeling of mastery , Goal in life, Unrealistic expectations, Sentiments deficiency ,History of psychiatric morbidity ,Emotional demands ,Raise awareness of own damage, weaknesses, fear of own death , Watch death as much as failure, The patient too much dying at the same time, Lack of communication and support Stresses Organization, and The cumulative loss.

* Attention to residents’ transition from active curative care to palliative care (with comfort care and symptom management) requires that care team members provide the resident and their families with sufficient information about the transition process to facilitate decision making. This provision of information can reduce residents’ and families’ concerns and increase their satisfaction regarding the appropriateness of a palliative approach.