Palliative Care Essay
Palliative Care: What is Palliative Care, Anyway?
According to the National Institute of Health, palliative care is "treatment of the discomfort, symptoms, and stress of serious illness. It provides relief from distressing symptoms including pain, shortness of breath, fatigue, constipation, nausea, loss of appetite, problems with sleep, and the side effects of the medical treatments you are receiving." Palliative care is also known as comfort care.
Often confused with palliative care is hospice care. Hospice, or end-of-life care, is designed to provide comfort and quality of life during a person's final six months. Because the main purpose of hospice care is to provide comfort, palliative care is a major component of hospice services, however …show more content…
After all, the purpose of palliative care is to make a person more comfortable and improve their quality of life. Granted, not every palliative treatment or service will be covered by every insurance just as not every medical treatment or medication is covered by every insurer.
Palliative care does not mean that you are dying, which is another common misconception. There are times, however, when a disease or condition will not be cured and the prognosis is terminal. In this case, palliative care measures are not abandoned, but the primary focus of treatment becomes comfort instead of cure. This is when palliative care and hospice care overlap. Should the condition suddenly reverse, palliative care would still continue and curative options would once again be administered.
Research has shown that those who receive palliative care have faster and more successful recoveries than patients who do not receive these services. Because a key component of palliative care is communication, patients feel that their wishes are followed and that their emotional and spiritual needs are
According to the National Institute of Health, palliative care is "treatment of the discomfort, symptoms, and stress of serious illness. It provides relief from distressing symptoms including pain, shortness of breath, fatigue, constipation, nausea, loss of appetite, problems with sleep, and the side effects of the medical treatments you are receiving." Palliative care is also known as comfort care.
Often confused with palliative care is hospice care. Hospice, or end-of-life care, is designed to provide comfort and quality of life during a person's final six months. Because the main purpose of hospice care is to provide comfort, palliative care is a major component of hospice services, however …show more content…
After all, the purpose of palliative care is to make a person more comfortable and improve their quality of life. Granted, not every palliative treatment or service will be covered by every insurance just as not every medical treatment or medication is covered by every insurer.
Palliative care does not mean that you are dying, which is another common misconception. There are times, however, when a disease or condition will not be cured and the prognosis is terminal. In this case, palliative care measures are not abandoned, but the primary focus of treatment becomes comfort instead of cure. This is when palliative care and hospice care overlap. Should the condition suddenly reverse, palliative care would still continue and curative options would once again be administered.
Research has shown that those who receive palliative care have faster and more successful recoveries than patients who do not receive these services. Because a key component of palliative care is communication, patients feel that their wishes are followed and that their emotional and spiritual needs are