Palliative Care Nursing



Palliative Care Nursing

Introduction

The World Health Organisation (2002) stated that the goal of palliative care is to control patient's pain and other symptoms associated with the whole person, being their body, soul and mind, whilst enabling patient's and their families to maintain a quality of life. However there are many definitions from various authors about the principles and philosophy of palliative care but they all relate to the same basis and that is that the philosophy and principles of palliative care is to look after the patient as a whole and not just treat the illness with the main focus being that the patient has the best quality of life possible and is allowed to die with dignity (Kemp, 1995). Faull, Carter and Daniels (2005) and Watson, Lucas, Hoy and Back (2005) define that palliative care is not a substitute for other care but a means to compliment it, therefore ensuring the patient and family gets the optimum care and the best quality of life possible, whilst encompassing the whole person, spiritually and psychologically.

Discussion

The term "palliative care" generally refers to any care that alleviates symptoms, whether or not there is hope of a cure by other means; thus, a recent WHO statement[1] calls palliative care "an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problems associated with life-threatening illness." Palliative treatments may also be used to alleviate the side effects of curative treatments, such as relieving the nausea associated with chemotherapy.

The term "palliative care" is increasingly used with regard to diseases other than cancer such as chronic, progressive pulmonary disorders, renal disease, chronic heart failure, HIV/AIDS, and progressive neurological conditions. In addition, the rapidly growing field of pediatric palliative care has clearly shown the need for services geared specifically for children with serious illness.

Although the concept of palliative care is not new, most physicians have traditionally concentrated on trying to cure patients. Treatments for the alleviation of symptoms were viewed as hazardous and seen as inviting addiction and other unwanted side effects. The focus on a patient's quality of life has increased greatly during the past twenty years. In the United States today, 55% of hospitals with more than 100 beds offer a palliative-care program, and nearly one-fifth of community hospitals have palliative-care programs. A relatively recent development is the concept of a dedicated health care team that is entirely geared toward palliative treatment: a palliative-care team.

Potter and Frisch (2007) explain the concept of holistic care and define it as a holism approach to care, by looking after all aspects of the patient, incorporating the body, mind and soul. Watson et al (2005) confirm that holistic care is looking after the whole person and not just the disease, be this psychologically, spiritually or socially. The whole concept of holistic care is defined in the World Health Organisation guidelines (2002) as it states that the psychological and spiritual needs of a patient is to be incorporated into their ...