Essay on Palliative Care Approach

Requirement

Write an essay on Palliative care

Solution

Introduction

Palliative care is a health care approach that channels to increase the quality of life in patients suffering from life threatening diseases. The service embarks a journey to patients who have lost their happiness and peace of mind. This reason makes palliative care one of the most significant units in medical operations. Very often trained health professionals fail to examine distress that comes along with diseases like cancer, multiple sclerosis etc. Appropriate palliation not only alleviates the pain but also makes dying an easy process. The palliative care is provided through a multi-disciplinary team where nurses are in the closest vicinity to the patients. Due to this the ethical values and personal persona of nurses greatly influences the quality of care channelled by care units like hospice. 

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Body

Holistic end of life care ensures to provide a support system that affirms an active life until death. Life limiting illness compels the patients to stay in hospitals for treatments that require complete medical modulation and support. Life shifts from home to hospital, altering daily routine of patients, regular social interaction with people and also increases the dependency on nurses for daily routine habits. This brings several distress conditions like dehydration, incontinence, nausea, pain vomiting etc. It is extremely important to manage these symptoms in a set up that has multidisciplinary team having good communication with patients. Palliative care team consists of doctors, physiotherapists, nurses, occupational therapists, volunteers etc. 

As disease grows, patient starts suffering with problems that can neither be said nor be treated by more medical interventions. Some of those issues are confusion, sticking of food in throat, pain in wide number of places, shortness of breath, uncontrolled dehydration, poor nutrition, loss in taste. These problems if cannot be overcome, they can be reduced by offering distractions to patients, or sometimes they can also be given medications that ensure the feeling of relaxation. The main problem that arises is prognosis of period that says, ‘Patient needs palliative care.’ Death is still a taboo and we prefer to keep it in denial and go through every possible medical treatment that can increase our life expectancy. Trained health professionals lack ability to analyse the point where patient should be referred to hospice or other palliative care units. According to General Medical Council (2010), serious consideration should be provided to when the treatment should be withdrawn and patient should be freed from artificial hydration and nutrition. This also helps to overcome not only psychological but physical distress that develops in patient due to prolonged stay in hospital for treatment.In England, through study researchers found that minimum 63.03% deaths would have needed palliative care, it also says that up to 82% of people who die need palliative care. (Murtagh et. al, 2013) Early identification of patients who are in primary stages of serious illness can be given palliative care to give some time to them for accepting the illness and gradually develop harmony with care operations to improve their life and prevent themselves from mental and physical distress conditions. Families should be asked to develop cooperation and accept the illness of patient. Family centred care also prevents the patient from early fatigue and makes him feel normal. In many of the cases family denies to send the patient to palliative care unit regarding it as a place where you go to hasten the death. Normal medical  operations can be carried out hand in hand with palliative care.

A variety of needs are expressed by a person who is dying. This covers psychological, spiritual, physical needs etc. Intervention or prognosis of such needs if done by nurses would make much difference in life of people who are going to end up dying soon. Nurses live in closest proximity to patients, they see them first in the morning, bring them food, checks their vitals. This all develops a connection that can nowhere be written by patient or any other professional expert. Nurses should be provided with expert training on psychological prospects of human nature. This can also be used by them to spread awareness among people about growing benefits of holistic end of life care. Many a times, patients and their family have deepest faith in nurses, as they help them to understand clinical complications that grow exponentially as the person becomes more ill. When nurses share their personal experiences that brought happiness in patients, this promotes the reliance of patients in them and thus brings psychological support to them. I as a nurse, also feel that the distress is not only in patients but it also grows in us when we help people daily to deal with pain, sufferings. This also brings an insight that not only patients but nurses also need psychological help through palliative care operation. The response of nurses to socio-physical situations highly affects the patients that are cared by them. If the patient is spiritual, a spiritual talk and inspiration by nurse can help him to decrease the mental distress and fatigue that constantly grows in mind and body. Nurses can also be asked to use their skills in conducting meetings that are exclusive for patients, where they must be told about the treatment they will be exposed to. Personal opinion of patients should also be welcomed in order to increase their confidence. They should also be asked for place where they want to die; this will give them a feeling of fulfilment of personal desires.(Dionne-Odom et. al, 2015)

Patients getting an end of life care operation need a daily dose of motivation to get up and live his rest of the life in peace. I believe that a nurse can provide her patient with such motivation that will keep him active throughout the treatment and care operation. This brings up the idea that, nurses who are to be recruited for end of life care operations should be evaluated on their values, and philosophy about life apart from skills. That would increase the quality of operation and will also encourage more people to come out with will to give their life a better shape and direction. Nurses and patients should be capable of developing a balance in their beliefs and values to make palliative operation the best remedy to growing depression, distress and pain.

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Conclusion

The discussion thus speaks about the importance of palliative care and its need in the society. Lack of palliative care operations are decreasing the quality of life in ill patients, which can only be overcome by joint efforts of medical experts, nurses, doctors, social workers etc. Palliative care provides full liberty to patients in knowing the medical operations that they have to undergo and it also channels the psychological frames that grow due to physical pain and distress in severely ill patients. Palliative care also ensures that patient gets some time to spend with their family at home while being treated and keep their life as active as possible. This is not only good for patients but also helps their family to settle their conflicts with illness and death that is coming for their loved one. In a society where death is kept in denial, palliative care or end of life care outgrows the barriers and makes death an easy process.

References

  • General Medical Council. Treatment and care towards the end of     life.(2012).good practice     in decision making 2010. Retrieved April 14 2018.http://www.gmc-uk.org 

  • Murtagh, F., Bausewein, C., Verne, J., et al.(2013) How many people need palliative care?. A     study developing and comparing methods for population based estimates.Palliat Med     .28: 49-58.

  • Dionne-Odom, J. N., Azuero, A., Lyons, K. D., Hull, J. G., Tosteson, T., Li, Z., ... &         Hegel, M. T. (2015).Benefits of early versus delayed palliative care to informal     family caregivers of patients with advancedcancer: outcomes from the ENABLE III     randomized controlled trial. Journal of clinical oncology, 33(13),1446.

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