Palliative Care Brian Nyatanga Analysis
The article I read was Children: A Protected Species in Palliative Care by Brian Nyatanga. The article describes palliative care as a death process in which the patient, family, and friends benefit from being involved throughout the tough situation. The article mainly focuses on how children are usually not involved or even informed of the patient’s health issue(s). Children are commonly not involved for varies reasons, but generally because the parents don’t want the child to become affected in a psychosocial way. According to Nyatanga, children should be involved in the natural process of death because it allows the patient and the child to grieve in a healthier manner.
The article explained the nursing role in palliative care as being
an educator to the patient, family, and friends of the importance of everyone being involved. As explained by Nyatanga, dialogue is important in providing children with values and belief systems that could be passed down to their children one day. Therefore, it is important that children understand death, being it is a normal part of life. Another nursing role found in the article is being understanding of who and what is important to the patient. We must understand that family is extended beyond blood connection and could be anyone or anything that is emotionally close to the patient such as a dog.
One thing that I learned in this article is how children are neglected from properly saying goodbye sometimes because of the parent’s or guardian’s fear that it may negatively affect the child. I’ve always thought keeping the child away from negative experiences such as death as being the right thing to do. However, now I realize that it is healthier for the child and patient to experience the natural grieving process rather than holding emotions inside. A second thing that I learned was that family doesn’t necessarily mean it is just the patient’s blood relatives or spouse. Family can be anyone because sometimes family is found from long friendships with people or pets.
The article explained the nursing role in palliative care as being
an educator to the patient, family, and friends of the importance of everyone being involved. As explained by Nyatanga, dialogue is important in providing children with values and belief systems that could be passed down to their children one day. Therefore, it is important that children understand death, being it is a normal part of life. Another nursing role found in the article is being understanding of who and what is important to the patient. We must understand that family is extended beyond blood connection and could be anyone or anything that is emotionally close to the patient such as a dog.
One thing that I learned in this article is how children are neglected from properly saying goodbye sometimes because of the parent’s or guardian’s fear that it may negatively affect the child. I’ve always thought keeping the child away from negative experiences such as death as being the right thing to do. However, now I realize that it is healthier for the child and patient to experience the natural grieving process rather than holding emotions inside. A second thing that I learned was that family doesn’t necessarily mean it is just the patient’s blood relatives or spouse. Family can be anyone because sometimes family is found from long friendships with people or pets.