Role of a Palliative Care Nurse

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Recommended: Discuss the importance of advocacy as it pertains to patient care

Palliative Care

The role of the expert palliative care nurse is complex and unique. The nurse functions as an integral part of a Multidisciplinary team, providing expert skilled assessment and nursing care, supporting the patient and the family to make informed choices thereby encouraging the patient to continue to make autonomous decisions about their care towards the end of their life.

However, often the nurse will find herself dealing with difficult family dynamics with family members having differing expectations of the type of care that the patient should be receiving, staff conflict over treatment methods or strategies and high workloads. These issues can only compound the stresses on the Palliative Care Nurse and to cope with the many dilemmas she must be well armed.

The complex needs of the terminally ill patients and their families make the multidisciplinary team approach the most effective method of care Staff from a range of disciplines including medical, nursing, social work, dietitian, physiotherapist, pharmacist and others bring diverse and unique skills. As a team they provide an excellent sounding board for ethical dilemmas thereby --hopefully- enhancing ethical practice. (Latimer, 1998)

The Nurse in her role is required to act as patient advocate and ensure that the patient's rights are respected. Unfortunately this advocacy is sometimes perceived negatively as a threat or implied criticism of medical care. Doctors need to listen to the nurses more accurate perspective of patient concerns. Consistency across the team leads to better outcomes for patients. Reinforcing the same information by both medical and nursing staff help to allay patient anxiety far more than conflicting views on such things as s...

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...elds SM 1990 Narcotic analgaesics: clinical pharmacology and therapeutics. Cancer Nursing 13(1):28-38

Mount B 1993 Whole person care: beyond psychosocial and physical needs. The American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care January/February 28-37

McCaffery M and Beebe A 1989 Assessment Chapter 2. In: Pain: Clinical manual for nursing practice. CV Mosby, Toronto pp6-33

Owens MK and Ehrenreich D 1991 Literature review of nonpharmacological methods for the treatment of chronic pain. Holistic Nursing Practice 6(1):24-31

Scanlon C 1989 Creating a vision of hope: the challenge of palliative care. Oncology Nursing Forum 16(4):491-496

Vachon MLS 1993 Emotional problems in palliative medicine: patient, family, and professional. In: Doyle D, Hanks G, Macdonald N (eds) The Oxford textbook of palliative medicine. Oxford University Press, Oxford p 577-605

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