Palliative Care
Introduction
Palliative care is a unique form of health care that boosts the quality of life for patients at any disease stage. Although palliative care is largely an end of life treatment, it also focuses on other illnesses that are not necessarily chronic. In essence, the goal of palliative care is to control symptoms in order to boost the patient’s wellbeing. It is highly likely to confuse palliative care with hospice care. However, the latter’s focus is on chronic illnesses that are incurable. Through palliative care, patients can take pleasure in life despite their health predicaments.
Settings
Palliative care can take place in different types of settings. The hospital serves as an essential setting for palliative care. In hospitals, patients under palliative care interact frequently with nurses and other health care practitioners. The hospital setting for palliative care is mostly used when the patient is critically ill. Home care is the second setting for palliative medicine (Grant, 2009). This setting is largely used in the event that the patient’s condition is not critical and does not require regular medical attention. Hospices serve as another setting for palliative care. This mostly applies to patients who cannot realistically survive beyond six months.
Qualifying for Palliative Care
Patients at the final stages of terminal illnesses qualify for palliative care. Additionally, patients suffering from incurable diseases are admissible into palliative care programs. As an end of life treatment, most families struggle to accept palliative care when the physician recommends it. However, the physician familiarizes the family with the different benefits of palliative care. It seeks to enhance the patient’s wellbeing rather than have him or her struggle with intractable pain. In end of life treatment, palliative care is among the most ethical alternatives (Connor, 2009). This is because it maximizes benefits for all parties. Through such perspectives, families accept the use of palliative care on their loved ones.
Treatment in Palliative Care
There are numerous treatment alternatives for patients in palliative care. However, the treatment must not hasten the death process. This is because palliative care perceives death as a normal process of life. Consequently, medications that accelerate the death process do not form a part of the treatment framework in palliative care. Additionally, palliative care treatment does not involve medications and processes that can cause pain within the patient’s body system (Boog, 2008). This is because palliative care seeks to promote the patient’s comfort by all means. On the other hand, pain management is an integral treatment platform in palliative care. This helps in controlling the different symptoms that cause discomfort to the patient.
Accepting Palliative Care
In order to handle the difficult situation, the families of patients in palliative care work closely with different specialists (Grant, 2009). Such specialists include spiritual leaders, psychiatrists and health care practitioners. The specialists comfort the families in the wake of difficult situations. The goal is to make the family understand that palliative care is a platform for promoting the patient’s wellbeing. Without palliative care, patients would live in agony and suffer from intractable pain. Consequently, palliative care maintains the patient’s dignity.
Conclusion
As an end of life treatment, palliative care presents an excellent framework for upholding the dignity and wellbeing of terminally ill patients. Palliative care can take place in different settings including hospitals and at home. However, collaboration between the patient’s family and specialists is paramount towards successful palliative care.
References
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