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Role of palliative care in dying patient
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Recommended: Role of palliative care in dying patient
Inspiration and respect come to mind when I meet doctor who seem superb at their job. Additionally, while listening to Dr. Jennifer Jackson’s speech about palliative care, I became inspired by her brisk personality and knowledge. Notably, what interested me about her speech was not solely her brisk personality, but her work. In particular, I became inspired and intrigued by her work with palliative care because the resource fascinated me yet comforted me in knowing that there is a superb option for patients with a serious illness. Nevertheless, although I have the comfort of knowing there is palliative care, Dr. Jennifer Jackson’s description of her care with the Egyptian woman brought me to a realization of what doctors deal with emotionally. …show more content…
Jennifer Jackson elucidated that palliative care ameliorates the quality of life and assisted people from not becoming isolated towards their end of life, I discerned the bliss in such care. Additionally, prior to her speech, I contemplated on what would happen to geriatric patients that are lonely. Nevertheless, Dr. Jennifer Jackson answered my thoughts when she stated that patients have an alternative choice of palliative care, which does not compromise the quality of a patient's life brought comfort to me. To emphasize, I believe I feel a comfort in knowing that palliative care is a resource because I visualized my family members in such position and the thought struck me on how paramount palliative care can be because of how palliative care changes a patient’s quality of life and their emotional state immensely. In light of emotions, Dr. Jennifer Jackson’s example of her care with the Egyptian woman made me realize that doctors deal with more than just cures, but their emotion for each patient is a lasting
Final Gifts, written by hospice care workers, Maggie Callanan and Patricia Kelly, includes various stories detailing each of their life changing experiences that they encountered with their patients. Hospice care allows the patient to feel comfortable in their final days or months before they move on to their next life. This book contains the information considered necessary to understand and deal with the awareness, needs, and interactions of those who are dying. Not only are there stories told throughout the book, there are also tips for one to help cope with knowing someone is dying and how to make their death a peaceful experience for everyone involved. It is important that everyone involved is at as much peace as the person dying in the
While the majority of the book critiques the healthcare system, Chapter 13 focuses more on key actions and personality traits that help Dr. Stone relate to patients. Although this noteworthy, compassionate physician attempts to develop an understanding of his patients’ values and goals, he still fails Mrs. Jackson by trying to retain cultural competency by tiptoeing around end-of-life decisions. Conversations about feeding tube placement and DNR orders could have minimized Mrs. Jackson’s unnecessary
When making decisions regarding treatment of another person, it is important to respect the expressed wishes of the individual. John says that his mother would want to live as long as she could, but questions arise related to her quality of life and perception of prolonged suffering by prolonging the dying process. The book states that quality of life changes throughout one’s life and experiences.
Gawande’s book is very pertinent to the present day and has by many accounts sparked a national discussion on end-of-life care and how we treat our elderly. With elderly people accounting for a greater proportion of the American populace and as people start living even longer than they do now, end-of-life care will become and remain a major issue faced by doctors, patients, their families, and the healthcare system. Additionally, with our greater focus on improving patient outcomes while getting the most value for our healthcare dollars, end-of-life care is a major area that healthcare systems and hospitals will focus on, as it accounts for a large portion of their budget. As a response to the need to take care of our aging population, hospice care and palliative medicine are some of the newer specialties in the medical field that have been increasing in popularity and more research needs to be focused in these areas to better understand how to improve patient outcomes.
When you think of home care for a loved one, you want comfort and convenience with quality of life. A misconception of palliative care is that it is equivalent to hospice care, which concentrates on end of life. However, palliative care is now being offered to patients whether it begins early at diagnosis or throughout ongoing treatment. It is no longer limited to medical settings as more health care agencies are now offering it in home care. Think of palliative care as “comfort” care during any stage of illness.
Nurses are both blessed and cursed to be with patients from the very first moments of life until their final breath. With those last breaths, each patient leaves someone behind. How do nurses handle the loss and grief that comes along with patients dying? How do they help the families and loved ones of deceased patients? Each person, no matter their background, must grieve the death of a loved one, but there is no right way to grieve and no two people will have the same reaction to death. It is the duty of nurses to respect the wishes and grieving process of each and every culture; of each and every individual (Verosky, 2006). This paper will address J. William Worden’s four tasks of mourning as well as the nursing implications involved – both when taking care of patients’ families and when coping with the loss of patients themselves.
Life or Death? I see it fitting to start off by actually explaining what “Right to Die” is. The Right to Die is a principle based on a person’s choice to terminate their life or to endure voluntary euthanasia. The two Supreme Court cases that relate to the constitutional Right to Die are Cruzan by Cruzan V. Director, Missouri Department of Health and Washington V. Glucksberg . The first of these cases is based on the constitutional right of the state to interfere with medical decisions. Whether the state has a right to withhold the parent’s decision to remove life-sustaining support from their child. While the second case argues whether the state has a right to restrict a patient’s decision to partake in Physician Assisted Suicide.
“It’s Over, Debbie” an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, written by an anonymous person, sparks a heated debate concerning the nature of euthanasia. The article is written from the perspective of gynecology resident’s. After analyzing the patient’s condition, he gives her a twenty milligram dose of morphine sulfate. This amount of dose is not concerned lethal; however, given the patient’s underweight body and medical condition was enough to kill her. The problem arises in determining whether this was active or passive euthanasia. Due to the ambiguous wording of the article, the answer can vary from reader to reader. For example, the anonymous author describes how the nurse gave the resident hurried details,
The topic of assisted suicide has been a controversial topic across North America. Although both supporters and critics have expressed very different and logical views on the matter, competent terminal patients should be given the right to decide when they want to end their overall suffering. Euthanasia in Canada distinguishes between active and passive euthanasia. Active, is the act of intentionally killing a person to relieve pain. While withholding or taking away life-preserving procedures such as water and food, is passive. Over the last few years, Canada, more specifically Ontario has gained permission by provincial courts to end their life ahead of the federal government 's new law. In 2015, The judgement of the Supreme Court of Canada
My claim: I argue in favor of the right to die. If someone is suffering from a terminal illness that is: 1) causing them great pain – the pain they are suffering outweighs their will to live (clarification below) 2) wants to commit suicide, and is of sound mind such that their wanting is reasonable. In this context, “sound mind” means the ability to logically reason and not act on impulses or emotions. 3) the pain cannot be reduced to the level where they no longer want to commit suicide, then they should have the right to commit suicide. It should not be considered wrong for someone to give that person the tools needed to commit suicide.
Merriam-Webster defines euthanasia as “the act or practice of killing or permitting the death of hopelessly sick or injured individuals (as persons or domestic animals) in a relatively painless way for reasons of mercy.” As a globally issues, euthanasia is always in controversial. Swanton,D argued that euthanasia protects the rights of individuals and the freedom of religious expression. Additionally, Sydeny,D outlines europe’s increasing acceptance of euthanasia which may mean that euthanasia is a preferable choice for people. Conversely, Fagerlin, A PhD from University of Michigan Medical School and Carl E. Schneider, JD from University of Michigan Law School suggest the great distortion of living wills if euthanasia is allowed. What is
Physician-assisted suicide is “the voluntary termination of one's own life by administration of a lethal substance with the direct or indirect assistance of a physician. Physician-assisted suicide is the practice of providing a competent patient with a prescription for medication for the patient to use with the primary intention of ending his or her own life.” (medterms.com) Surveys have shown physician-assisted suicide to be gaining more and more support amongst doctors and “up to half of adults believe it should be legal in cases of terminal illnesses.” (Vaugn, Page 597) In a 2000 large survey, Oncologists revealed 22.5% supported the use of physician-assisted suicide for a terminally ill patient with unremitting pain, 6.6% favored active euthanasia in these circumstances, 56.2% had received requests from patients for physician assisted suicide, 38.2% for active euthanasia, 10.8% had performed physician-assisted suicide and 3.7% active euthanasia. (Vaughn, Page 598) Not only have physician-assisted suicide begun gaining more support amongst physicians but also in the public. In a 2007 survey conducted by Ipsos-Public Affairs, results have shown that 48% of the public believe it should be legal or doctors to help terminally ill patients end their own life by giving them a prescription of fatal drugs while 44% believe it should be illegal. (Vaughn, Page 603) In the 2007 Gallup Poll, results show 56% of the public believes when a person has a disease that cannot be cured and is living in severe pain, doctors should be allowed to assist the patient to commit suicide if the patients requests it and 38% believe it should not be allowed and 49% of the public believes that physician-assisted suicide is morally acceptable while 44% beli...
The question of euthanasia is one that has plagued the human sense of morale for centuries. With modern medical technology it becomes even more pressing. I will cover three aspects of Euthanasia including three principles for, three principles against, and my own conclusion as to why Euthanasia is morally justified.
Euthanasia was an idea created in the mid 1800’s, when John Warren recommended the used of chloroform to hasten death and take away pain. By definition, it means good death. Even if a death was brought upon out of mercy from a physician, but nothing good didn’t came from it, it’s not consider to be euthanasia. The greater good and the lesser evil can be interpreted in different way, and what is the value in life and it’s relation to the definition of death can also vary. Consequently, countless debates and cases emerged, where the decision to whether or not kill the patient was situated. Who get to decide and is it morally permissible in the first place. This problem emerges from each individuals’ value on life and how they perceive death. People can perceived death as an ending to a suffering, and denying that choice is inhumane, or they can perceived it as an end to self, and you can’t just kill yourself because its convenience. There are a lot of grey areas that emerged from this debate, but a deep look inside the debate. We can see that how our personal belief on life and death dictate our opinion. The debates on euthanasia, an important issue that can govern the relationship between hospital and the community, are separated into two sections, one for and one against, both sided used their individual interpretation of life to argued their opinion on the debate and when taking a closer look, we can see how the view in death dictate their opinion on the issue and how that affect the laws implemented by their government.
Euthanasia, the intentional and direct killing of a patient by a physician or another party, most commonly done by useful lethal injections. Originally done to compassionately end pain or suffering. Imagine society where people live in constant fear for their lives. They would never live life to the fullest, or know what was coming in their future. Imagine life where hospitals do not treat people to save their lives, but kill people for their illnesses because someone determines whether their lives are worth living or not. Society argues that it is the right choice, but when put in the situation directly, it is much harder. Once a life is gone, it is gone. It is not a little decision to make. Literally a life changing choice. Society should accept people for their disabilities, and not dispose of them because they are too much of an inconvenience; therefore, euthanasia is wrong because a “slippery slope” or a rapid upcoming to even murder may happen, if legalized, each and every life is valuable, and euthanasia is an unnatural death.