Within palliative care, caregivers and patients take on roles that should balance each other out. The patient should be comfortable with trusting the caregiver to keep the patients promises while receiving treatment, being unconscious, or awaiting death. As a caregiver, they are to respect their patients wishes even if there is an ethical battle within the caregiver. This battle can cause the relationship between the patient and caregiver to become disrupted. The disruption within their relationship can cause strain which will put added pressure on both parties. Whenever a patient relies on the caregiver to work out their wishes, the care giver should always support the patient’s rights, no matter how big an ethical dilemma there might be. …show more content…
Pain management is crucial aspect of palliative care since the goal is to help relax the patient. If the patient that I was given rights as a caretaker discussed that they didn’t want pain medication, I would be at a loss since I would not want to see the patient in pain. Altitilo discusses that “the experience of pain is universal. Under normal conditions pain is a biological warning signal alerting us that something is wrong within the body or that we should cease a hurtful, potentially harmful activity” (2013). When the thought of death arises in many minds, the thought of how much pain and suffering also follows. Dying can be a peaceful, but also there could be pain if an illness is threatening a client. Even though a life-threatening illness can bring serious physical pain, there can be many symptoms of nonphysical pain. The nonphysical pain can affect the mental and emotional state of the client. If the client becomes upset or develops a mental illness, then the client could be at a higher risk of more pain. Alleviating the pain management to a minimum is one concept palliative care
Pain is neither objective nor seen or felt by anybody other than the person that is experiencing it. Pain is subjective, therefore there is no way to distinguish whether or not someone is hurting and the only and best measurement of pain is that what the patient says it is. In settings such as end of life care, patients present with many different disease processes and ultimately are there because they have an average of six months to live. Along with this stage in their lives, palliative care patients can encounter a myriad of symptoms, which can result in these patients experiencing tremendous physical and psychological suffering (Creedon & O’Regan, 2010, p. [ 257]). For patients requiring palliative care, pain is the most incapacitating of symptoms and in return unrelieved pain is the primary symptom that is feared most by these patients. So why has pain management not become the top priority when it comes to end of life care, considering this area is growing at an extraordinary rate as a result of an increasingly ageing population?
...rson cannot be legitimately interrupted. The use of painkillers to alleviate the sufferings of the dying, even at the risk of shortening their days, can be morally in conformity with human dignity if death is not willed as either an end or a means, but only foreseen and tolerated as inevitable. Palliative care is a special form of disinterested charity. As such it should be encouraged. (Catechism)
There are questions about transplant allocation in regards to the four major ethical principles in medical ethics: beneficence, autonomy, nonmaleficence and justice. Beneficence is the “obligation of healthcare providers to help people” that are in need, autonomy is the “right of patients to make choices” in regards to their healthcare, nonmaleficence, is the “duty of the healthcare providers to do no harm”, and justice is the “concept of treating everyone in a fair manner” ("Medical Ethics & the Rationing of Health Care: Introduction", n.d., p. 1).
Planning included reaching out to other health organizations, objectives, and goals of health fair were established. The implementation includes getting volunteers, set up for the health fair. The evaluation of the process occurred throughout the implementation and changes were made as needed. The evaluation will be completed by gathering information from health booth to determine the number of participants. Review vendor and participant evaluations about the health fair including how they heard about the health fair, ratings of booths and suggestions for improvements. Record everything to determine changes. Reflection on past experiences and what worked and did not work.
This study showed that nursing ethical values in patients, clients car are similar in many cases due to a common core in humanistic and spiritual approach of nursing profession, which is taking care of a human values such as human dignity, kindness and sympathy, altruism, responsibility and commitment, justice and honesty, personal, professional competency were similar in most of the cultures.
This essay will aim to look at the main principles of cancer pain management on an acute medical ward in a hospital setting. My rational for choosing to look at this is to expend my knowledge of the chosen area. Within this pieces of work I will look to include physiological, psychological and sociological aspects of pain management.
End of life pain management is an important function of hospice organizations. Families and patients alike are comforted by the fact that, at the end, there are resources which allow for a comfortable death. Much of the quality of hospice care is determined by patient family members. In 2005, the Brown Medical school conducted research with regard to t...
Ethics is a branch of philosophy that deals with the moral principles and values that govern our behavior as human beings. It is important in the human experience that we are able to grasp the idea of our own ethical code in order to become the most sensible human beings. But in that process, can ethics be taught to us? Or later in a person’s life, can he or she teach ethics the way they learned it? It is a unique and challenging concept because it is difficult to attempt to answer that question objectively because everybody has his or her own sense of morality. And at the same time, another person could have a completely different set of morals. Depending on the state of the person’s life and how they have morally developed vary from one human
Even though many dispute over the value and usefulness of treatment and care of terminally ill patients, the debate for the most useful care and pain reliever for these patients is the question that most patients, and their families, have to ask themselves daily. Wesley J. Smith suggests that Hospice care for patients with such a horrible illness is a beneficial program and that many patients need to utilize it. Smith also recommends that a valuable care option would be to “allow the terminally ill to enter hospice care without having to give up life-extending or curative treatments”. (Smith 3) With this statement, Smith demonstrates a way that these ill patients can be provided with treatment and also care for the patient’s quality of life.
According to Haley and Daley (2013), cancer as the main cause of the terminal illness in the paediatric age. For the recent years, the survival rates of children with cancer have increased significantly with 7 out of 10 recovers (Selwood, Langford, & Wright, 2012). Haley & Daley (2013) also mentioned that parents act as the decision-makers and as the primary carer, moreover, physical and psychosocial developmental factors of the child affects the perception of death as temporary and the capability to communicate and make their own decisions. Moreover, parents make the decision for the child as for legal matters, but the child needs encouragement to actively participate and to develop the sense of authority. Children may have a different idea of pain and illness, for instance, they may think that they did something wrong that is why they are suffering. Children may refuse or not participate properly in any treatment without the supervision of the primary carer. Providing the child and family with health education during palliation as well as helping them to the transition to adulthood is an important task for the nurse. Derby, Tickoo, and Saldivar (2014) mentioned that the major difference of between old and younger adults is the need for extensive support of the family. Decision-making for older people might include the patient’s family, surrogates and Advanced Care Planning (ACP) at the time they are not able to make their own decision. Derby et al., (2014) stated that “ACP prepares for lack of capacity in decision-making and relieves the burden of decision-making on others” and surrogate decision-maker “is a person whom the patient designates to make decisions if/when he or she is unable to do so”. Older patients need a representative, mostly an elderly act as a primary carer to make the decision for them or someone who will make
The end-of-life nurse’s primary objective is to provide comfort and compassion to patients and their families during an extremely difficult time. They must satisfy all “physical, psychological, social, cultural and spiritual needs” of the patient and their family. (Wu & Volker, 2012) The nurse involves their patient in care planning, as well as educating them about the options available. They must follow the wishes of the patient and their family, as provided in the patient’s advance directive if there is one available. It is i...
... that the nurse or family can do. The goal for palliative care is to make the patient’s passing as comfortable and relaxing, as possible. Medication management should be provided for every patient that is having pain to allow for a more comforting, pain-free, and peaceful death.
The subject of death and dying is a common occurrence in the health care field. There are many factors involved in the care of a dying patient and various phases the patient, loved ones and even the healthcare professional may go through. There are many controversies in health care related to death, however much of it roots from peoples’ attitudes towards it. Everyone handles death differently; each person has a right to their own opinions and coping mechanisms. Health care professionals are very important during death related situations; as they are a great source of support for a patient and their loved ones. It is essential that health care professionals give ethical, legal and honest care to their patients, regardless of the situation.
Palliative care, and the medical sub-specialty of palliative medicine, is specialized medical care for people living with serious illness. It focuses on providing relief from the symptoms and stress of a serious illness. The goal is to improve quality of life for both the patient and the family. The design and implementation of successful inpatient acute palliative care programs primarily serve all patients with complex or serious illnesses (including cancer), yet they also can reduce non-beneficial utilization of acute care hospital services when costs from such admissions typically exceed revenues, in the case of long or high-cost stays. The increase in the numbers and costs of caring for chronically ill Medicare patients has become a
In conclusion, there are numerous legal and ethical issues apparent in the nursing practice. Nurses should study and be as informed as they can with ethics and legality within their field in order to ensure no mistakes occur. Ethical issues vary based on patient’s views, religion, and environment. Nurses are influenced by these same views, but most of the time they are not the same as the patients. As a nurse we must learn to put the care of our patients and their beliefs, rights, and wishes before our own personal