Preview

End of Life Care

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
15224 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
End of Life Care
When a loved one is dying, conversations about the end of life can be uncomfortable and difficult. Still, discussing end-of-life care is important.
Depending on the circumstances, you might be able to help your loved one make important end-of-life decisions — such as whether to remain at home, move to a nursing home or other facility, or seek hospice care. Also, you can work with your loved one 's health care team to make sure your loved one remains comfortable at the end of life. Pain, anxiety and other end-of-life symptoms can often be treated.
Even at the end of life, you can continue to support and nurture your relationship with your loved one. Simply being there can be an important source of strength and comfort for everyone.
Grief
When a loved one dies, grief can feel like a dagger in your heart. Often, grief triggers raw, intense emotions. You might wonder how you 'll ever pick up the pieces and heal your wounds — yet not feel as if you 're betraying your loved one 's memory.
There are no quick fixes for the grief and anguish that follow a loved one 's death. As you face your grief, acknowledge the pain and know that it 's part of the healing process. Take good care of yourself, and seek support from friends and loved ones.
Although your life will never be quite the same, the searing pain of grief will eventually become less intense. Accepting your new "normal" can help you reconcile your losses and move on with your life.

Hospice Care
Also called: End-of-life care
Hospice care is end-of-life care provided by health professionals and volunteers. They give medical, psychological and spiritual support. The goal of the care is to help people who are dying have peace, comfort and dignity. The caregivers try to control pain and other symptoms so a person can remain as alert and comfortable as possible. Hospice programs also provide services to support a patient 's family.
Usually, a hospice patient is expected to live 6 months or less. Hospice care



References: Barry, B. & Henderson, A. (1996). Value of decision making in the terminally ill patient. Cancer Nursing, 19(5), 384-291. Boyle, J.S., Buntin, S.M., Hodnicki, D.R., & Ferrell, J.A. (2001). Critical thinking in African American mothers who care for adult children with HIV. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 12(3), 193-202. Bradley, J. (1998). Discussions about end of life care in nursing homes. Journal of American Geriatrics Society, 46, 1235-1241. Braun, K.L., Pietsch, J.H., & Blanchette, P.L. (2000). Cultural issues in end of life decision making. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Breslin, R. (1993). Understanding culture’s influence on behavior. New York, NY: Harcourt Brace. Caralis, P.V., Davis, B., Wright, K., & Marcial, E. (1993). The influence of ethnicity and race on attitudes toward advance directives, life-prolonging treatments, and euthanasia. Journal of Clinical Ethics, 4, 155-65. Christakis, N.A. (2001). Death Foretold. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Ersek, M., Kagawa-Singer, M., & Barnes, D. et al (1998). Multicultural considerations in the use of advance directives. Oncology Nursing Forum, 25, 1683-1690. Fukaura, A., Tazawa, H., Nakajima, H., & Adachi, M. (1995). Do not resuscitate orders at a teaching hospital in Japan. New England Journal of Medicine, 333, 805-8. Haley, W.E., LaMonde, L.A., Han, B., Narramore, S., & Schonwetter, R. (2001). Family caregiving in hospice: Effects on psychological and health functioning in spousal caregivers for patients with lung cancer or dementia. The Hospice Journal, 15, 1-18. Hern, H.E., Koenig, B.A., Moore, L.J. & Marshall P.A. (1998). The difference that culture can make in end-of-life decision making.Cambridge Quarterly Healthcare Ethics, 7, 27-40. Lawrence, P. & Rozmus, C. (2001). Culturally sensitive care of the Muslim patients. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 12(3), 228-233. Mouton, C.P. (2000). Cultural and religious issues for African Americans. In Braun, K.L., Pietsch, J.H., Blanchette, P.L. (2000).Cultural issues in end of life decision making. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Murphy, S.T., Blackhall, L.J., Michel, V., & Azen, S.P. (1995). Ethnicity and attitudes toward patient autonomy. JAMA, 274, 820-5. Phipps, E., True, G., & Pomerantz, S. ( 2000). Approaches to End of Life Care in Culturally Diverse Communities. [On-line]. Sullivan, M.C. (2000). Lost in translation: How Latinos view end-of-life care. Last Acts: Care and Caring near the end of life. [On-line]. pp 4-5. Tulsky, J.A., Fischer, G.S., Rose, M.R., & Arnold, R.M. (1998). Opening the black box: How do physicians communicate about advance directives. Annals of Internal Medicine 129(8), 441-9. Weitzner, M., Haley, W.E., & Chen, H. (2000). The family caregiver of the oldercancer patient. Hematology/Oncology Clinics of North America, 14, 269 – 281.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Best Essays

    Forrest, L., RMT. (2011). Supportive Cancer Care at the End of Life: Mapping the Cultural…

    • 145 Words
    • 1 Page
    Best Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    1.1 Caring for patients at the end of life is a challenging task that requires not only the consideration of the patient as a whole but also an understanding of the family, social, legal, economic, and institutional circumstances that surround patient care.…

    • 1923 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Saccomano, S., & Abbatiello, G. (2014). Cultural considerations at the end of life. The Nurse Practitioner. 39(2), 24-31. doi: 10.1097/01.NPR.0000441908.16901.2e…

    • 812 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    "Percent support for euthanasia (1947-2005) and doctor-assisted suicide (1996-2005)." Death and Dying: End-of-Life Controversies. Detroit: Gale,…

    • 321 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    A terminal illness can have a devastating effect, not only on the patient, but the family as well. Caring for the patient does not just involve physically caring for the patient, but rather involves the holistic care, which is “all nursing practice that has healing the whole person as its goal” (American Holistic Nurses’ Association, 1998). The nurse becomes the therapeutic partner, which involves the care of the mind, body, and spirit, and is at the forefront of this care. It involves the patient and the care of the family during this difficult time.…

    • 1460 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Nurse Practitioner Model

    • 1818 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Hospice can be described as a philosophy of care that focuses on the palliation of a terminally ill patient’s symptoms while providing emotional and spiritual support for them and their family (Meirer, McCormick, & Lagman, 2015). The hospice model of care focuses on improving quality of life rather than prolonging it, and holistically embraces the principles of dying with comfort and dignity. This model uses an interdisciplinary team to develop an individualized plan of care that addresses all aspects of care and is based on the patient’s goals and cultural values (Meirer, McCormick, & Lagman,…

    • 1818 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Advanced Directives

    • 2140 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Advance Directives are a type of blueprint for individuals to map out their plan of care in case they become mentally unable to make decisions. Two highly published cases involving women who lacked decisional capacity started the ball rolling for what became known as the Patient Self- determination Act of 1990 (Odom, 2012). This act required medical professionals to advice patients of their rights once be admitted as a patient. There are moral, ethical and spiritual factors that come into play when a patient is making end of life plans and keeping the family informed will help with the caring through of those decisions even if the patient can no longer make their own choices. As Nurses it our job to educate and inform the patient of these rights and what choices they have in making these types of decisions. We must obtain written consent and document as much information as possible so that a patient feels we are making choices in their best interest.…

    • 2140 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    death and dying brochure

    • 410 Words
    • 2 Pages

    As we all know death is not an easy thing to go through nor is dying leading up to death. Prepare Prepare Prepare….. When a family knows that someone is about to die or has died being prepared mentally can help to make the process a little more manageable. Making sure that the person has a last will and testimony and also a trust is also important. By doing this the family as well as the dying person can know that his or her wishes are being followed and everything that they want done will be according to their word. No one want to die or be dying and know that family members will be bickering and arguing over petty things instead of celebrating the wonderful life that they dying person has lived. This is a very sensitive time so knowing how to say goodbye, giving comfort and letting the person know the end is near, making sure the person is as…

    • 410 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    It is important to educate healthcare staff about advanced directives. According to Jeong and Higgins and Mcmillan (2010) "In hospital setting, not surprisingly, people do not want to talk about end-of-life care plans at the commencement of a life-threatening illness". This may be a result of fear of rejection, lack of knowledge, or conflict with the patient or family. When the staff has appropriate knowledge of advanced directives they can clear up any myths or concerns that patients or family members may have.…

    • 1334 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In order to provide culturally competent health care, it is important to not only understand what end-of life care is, but also what cultural competence is. The National Institute of Health (NIH) and…

    • 720 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    1.1 Every terminal illness will lead to end of life care, unless a sudden death or recovery occur’s, terminal cancer’s and lots of lung diseases lead to end of life care as the body degenerates, however mental disease can lead to end of life care, like dementia, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and strokes as the damage to the brain will damage and cause the body to degenerate.…

    • 1055 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nobody wants to die, but death is an inevitable and complex phenomena. To say goodbye to loved one is always difficult. In some cases, it is harder when death comes sooner than later by some serious diagnosis. I think the most important point that a health-care professional needs to consider on the subject of death, dying or grieving is to respect the wishes of patients and families. Health-care professionals should provide training and education about death, dying, and bereavement to the families. Also, healthcare providers should be familiar with the ethics and cultures of the patients and families which they belong to. Death, dying or grieving processes can be culturally or traditionally different among patients. “Some physicians can keep…

    • 254 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    These doctor-to-patient sessions have nothing to do with the government run “death panels” described by Sarah Palin consisting of impersonal juries of accountants who only see the bottom line. Instead, end of life counseling puts the control back in patients’ hands, allowing them to dictate when and how they would like to die. These counseling sessions seek to nurture better relationships between doctors and their patients and plant seeds of change in a culture where death is no longer respected or valued. They diminish grief and suffering in the ill and their loved ones. End of life counseling sessions are a real solution to the issue of dying with dignity in a modern day healthcare…

    • 1462 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Best Essays

    Cultural nursing

    • 2663 Words
    • 11 Pages

    Australia is home to one of the most culturally diverse populations in the world, and the population continues to grow (National Health and Medical Research Council, 2006). This expanding diversity creates a potpourri of cultural attitudes, beliefs and values unlike the dominant Westernised view. The cultural differences impact on how people understand and experience end-of-life in the country. Customary practices of caring for the terminally ill that permeates in most African communities differ vastly from that of Australian’s individualistic culture (Hiruy & Mwanri, 2013). African culture is of a collectivistic nature whereby autonomy is devalued and the communities or families are expected to care for the sick. As with most ethnic minority groups, this culture can become altered or suppressed when subjected to the influences of another overriding culture (Kirmayer, 2012). For these reasons, the aim of the paper is to facilitate an understanding of the process to achieve culturally competent care. This paper begins with a description of an interaction between a student nurse who held a western set of values and a patient of African origin. The paper then discusses the cultural biasness against the minority group as well as the power relationships involved resulting in the suppression of the African end of life practices. A reflective discussion regarding the best approach to deliver culturally competent care during the interaction will also be presented.…

    • 2663 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Better Essays

    Euthanasia Opinion Paper

    • 2087 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Moulton, B.E, Hill, T.D., Burdette, A. (2006) Religion and Trends in Euthanasia Attitudes Among U.S. Adults, 1977-2004. The Sociological Forum, 21(2), p. 249-272.…

    • 2087 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays