PALLIATIVE CARE

Palliative Care-Case Study

Palliative Care

Part One: Palliative Care

Definition

Despite the many challenges presented by Australia' s health care system, many caring professionals are making a difference through palliative care, an approach to life-threatening illness that emphasizes patient comfort throughout the course of the illness. The most prominent type of palliative care is hospice, which seeks to keep patients comfortable during the final stages of their illness and focus on quality of life.Comparative Analysis of The Principles

The role of the expert principles of Palliative care Nursing in Australia is complex and unique. The Nurse in Australia 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 Principles of Palliative Care Nurse in Australia and to cope with the many dilemmas 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. (Liptak, 2003a) The Nurse in Australia in her role is required to act as patient advocate and ensure that the patient's rights are respected.

The very fact that the Nurse in Australia spends so much time with the patient makes them more likely to have knowledge of this kind of information. Doctor's rounds in a Palliative Care Unit enable the doctor to spend perhaps 30minutes maximum per day in talking to the patient.

In the community, appointments times with Doctors are restrictive and Home Visits limited. Patient Nurse Dependency ratios in hospitals and palliative care units mean that Nurse in Australia is spending approximately four hours per day on one to one patient contact. Again, other team members are very limited in the amount of time they spend with patients due to the number of clients/patients they may have. A dietitian for example may spend 15 minutes with a patient twice during their six-week stay in a Palliative Care Unit or 30 minutes as an outpatient during the course of the Terminal illness. Social workers often spend long periods at a time with patients and/or their families in lengthy discussion however these discussions may only take place a couple of times over the period of the illness. Therefore the Nurse in Australia is far more likely to be aware of issues affecting patient care.

There can be many difficulties for the Nurse in Australia expert providing ...