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?
Management of pain is very important when it comes to palliative care patients, considering that 55-95% of this patient population requires analgesia for pain relief (Creedon & O’Regan, 2010, p. [ 257]). But what is considered pain management? And why does pain continue to be inadequately treated? According to the article on chronic non-cancer pain in older people: evidence for prescribing, in the past few decades significant improvements have been made to the management of pain in palliative care. However, it is universally acknowledged that pain on a global scale remains inadequately treated because of cultural, attitudinal, educational, legal, and systemic reasons (Creedon & O’Regan, 2010, p. ...
... middle of paper ...
...reby reducing suffering.
Works Cited
Creedon, R., & O’Regan, P. (2010). Palliative care, pain control, and nurse prescribing. Nurse,
Prescribing, 8(6), 257-264.
Ferrell, B., Levy, M. H., & Paice, J. (2008). Managing pain from advanced cancer in the palliative care setting. Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing, 12(4), 575-581.
Leming, M. R., & Dickinson, G. E. (2011). Understanding dying, death, & bereavement. (7th ed., pp. 197-201). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learing.
McHugh, M., Miller-Saultz, D., Wuhrman, E., & Kosharskyy, B. (2012) . Interventional pain management in the palliative care patient. International Journal of Palliative Nursing,
18(9), 426-433.
Meera, A. (2011). Pain and Opioid Dependence: Is it a Matter of Concern. Indian Journal Of
Palliative Care, S 36-8. Doi: 10.4103/0973-1075.76240
A. Chronic pain signifies a developing public health issue of huge magnitudes, mainly in view of aging populations in developed countries (Russo).
...addition, the use of strong narcotics which was once restricted to pain management, is becoming accepted for a range of indications such as anxiety, shortness of breath and to suppress feelings of hunger when feeding is withdrawn. In this way palliative care is quickly becoming a euphemism for euthanasia.
Institute of Medicine Report from the Committee on Advancing Pain Research, Care and Education. (2011). Relieving Pain in America A Blueprint for Transforming Prevention, Care, Education and Research. Retrieved from http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?records_13172
Assessing and managing pain is an inevitable part of nursing and the care of patients. Incomplete relief of pain remains prevalent despite years of research due to barriers such as lack of kn...
Terminally ill patients deserve the right to have a dignified death. These patients should not be forced to suffer and be in agony their lasting days. The terminally ill should have this choice, because it is the only way to end their excruciating pain. These patients don’t have
In medical school/pharmacology school, medical professionals are taught to treat severe pain with opioids. However, opioids should be prescribed with the possibility of future dependency in mind. Physicians often struggle with whether they should prescribe opioids or seek alternative methodologies. This ethical impasse has led may medical professionals to prescribe opioids out of sympathy, without regard for the possibility of addiction (Clarke). As previously stated, a way to address this is use alternative methods so that physicians will become more acquainted to not not treating pain by means of opioid
James Rachel’s explains in his 1986 work The End of Life: Euthanasia and Morality that when death is the only escape from chronic and overbearing pain, it is justifiable to partake in or help someone achieve, assisted suicide (Rachels 312). What types of things cause ‘chronic and overbearing’ pain? Cancers, end-stage diseases, physical traumas, mental and emotional overwhelming pain; most people think that these types of abnormalities will affect older individuals, and for most situations, that is true. Yet, what can be done for the eight year old that is suffering from a neuromuscular disease? She has the mentality and emotional response of a toddler and she has never developed fully to enjoy life. Now she has come into the hospital and is only ‘liv...
Palliative care is an essential to the creation of a health and wellbeing continuum for Australians living with a chronic illness. It is an approach of care that seeks to improve the life of patients and family experiencing the effects of chronic illness. Palliative care centres on the relief of the symptoms and effects of disease and incorporate the physical, psychological and social dimensions of a person at the end of life. A recent focus for the delivery of palliative care by nurses to Indigenous communities is the consideration that culture can create barriers to the provision of appropriate and beneficial care for the dying or deceased person. This essay explores the palliative nurse caring for Indigenous communities and the need to consider
Instead of turning to death as an option, patients should realize that there are other ways to stop pain caused by illness or depression. For example, palliative care is available in today’s society. Palliative care is a medical specialty based solely on pain and is very advanced in today’s technology. If the patients that requested euthanasia were to undergo this treatment, they would not feel pain, or as much as they normally would, and the pain would be more tolerable (O’Steen). Also, in most situations, the longing for death or suicidal death, which was revealed to be clinical depression, can be treated by medicine and sympathetic counseling (Bonin).
Regarding the views of the general public toward these two practices, two-thirds of oncology patients and of the public consider euthanasia and assisted suicide acceptable for cancer patients with unremitting pain (6).
The major concepts deduced from the hypothesis fall under three categories: (1) multimodal intervention, (2) attentive care, and (3) patient participation. Multimodal intervention includes the concepts of potent pain medication, pharmacological adjuvants, and non-pharmacological adjuvants. Attentive care relates to the assessment of pain and side effects and intervention along with reassessments. Patient participation includes goal setting and patient education. The resulting outcome of these three categories working together is the balance between analgesia and side effects.
Pain, which is defined in its widest sense as an emotion which is the opposite of pleasure (White, 2004, p.455), is one of the major symptoms of cancer, affecting a majority of sufferers at some point during their condition (De Conno & Caraceni, 1996, p.8). The World Health Organization (WHO, 2009, online) suggests that relief from pain may be achieved in more than 90 percent of patients; however, Fitzgibbon and Loeser (2010, p.190) stress that pain may often be undertreated, even in the UK. Foley and Abernathy (2008, p.2759) identify numerous barriers to effective pain management, among which are professional barriers such as inadequate knowledge of pain mechanisms, assessment and management strategies.
Although euthanasia requests have begun to stabilize throughout the years while palliative care has improved, euthanasia will never completely disappear. This topic depends on the type of person someone is and what thethat person is enduring. Many people fear the process of dying and the dying itself. Even though there are treatments to relieve some pain throughin the process, a patient still knows death will eventually come. Some might believe it is better to end it now rather than prolonging it. Improving palliative care will not get rid of euthanasia requests, but instead, prolong the requests. A person’s suffering can only be temporarily managed. Even if a patient is on a pain relieving treatment, there might be other side effects that cause the patient to suffer, such as nausea and vomiting. Some may like the idea of temporarily removing the suffering, but others may not because of the realization of needing a treatment to temporarily make himself feel better. These treatments can be very costly and, over time, can add up to a great amount of money that a patient and his family does not have. Also, those who are on palliative care may decide later on that the wait or the side effects are not worth it anymore and eventually request euthanasia. The improvements of palliative care will only prolong the requests of
Physicians have a lot of power over their patients, many physicians advocate for the legalization of euthanasia (Shai 79). The physician’s duty is to ease the pain of the patient and, since many of the terminally ill patients experience unbearable pain, they do what they can and opt for euthanasia (Shai 79). Doctors are by law require to meet the needs of the patients and many times patients request for the doctors to alleviate the pain, although this could mean the termination the patients life. Physicians see the pain that their patients suffer and know what methods can ease the pain, not every patients suffering from chronic diseases will be given the same treatment, however if the patient is given the treatment of euthanasia, there is a reason behind that action. Pain is a contributing factor to the patients request to be euthanatized furthermore research has shown that the amount of pain they experiences rises to forty percent in last couple days of their lives.(Ho and Chantagul 254). Not only do patients with cancer experience untorable pain, but other terminal ill patients suffer as well. None of the patients who live through the pain what to be destroyed by i(Ho and Chantagul 254). It is difficult to imagine that someone has to carryout the rest of there days in pain and with not a single option but to wait it out. This makes patients
The care of patients at the end of their live should be as humane and respectful to help them cope with the accompanying prognosis of the end of their lives. The reality of this situation is that all too often, the care a patient receives at the end of their life is quite different and generally not performed well. The healthcare system of the United States does not perform well within the scope of providing the patient with by all means a distress and pain free palliative or hospice care plan. To often patients do not have a specific plan implemented on how they wish to have their end of life care carried out for them. End of life decisions are frequently left to the decision of family member's or physicians who may not know what the patient needs are beforehand or is not acting in the patient's best wishes. This places the unenviable task of choosing care for the patient instead of the patient having a carefully written out plan on how to carry out their final days. A strategy that can improve the rate of care that patients receive and improve the healthcare system in general would be to have the patient create a end of life care plan with their primary care physician one to two years prior to when the physician feels that the patient is near the end of their life. This would put the decision making power on the patient and it would improve the quality of care the patient receives when they are at the end of their life. By developing a specific care plan, the patient would be in control of their wishes on how they would like their care to be handled when the time of death nears. We can identify strengths and weakness with this strategy and implement changes to the strategy to improve the overall system of care with...