Palliative Care During Lifespan Development

The prognosis was for her death to occur within three months. You meet Mary and James as a community palliative care nurse providing home visits. Palliative care After a few weeks, Mary’s condition deteriorates to the point she is effectively bedbound. Mary had previously expressed to James her wish to die at home rather than in hospital. Using the literature, outline the nursing process in palliative care. Nursing Process in Palliative Care 4. Using the literature, outline the nursing process in palliative care. 
 Mary needs to have access to palliative care services which is essential for people whose diseases are at the end stage and in need to relieve their pain and improve the quality of their lives (Faull & Blankley, 2015). Palliative care focuses on reducing pain and suffering for the patients to ensure they live the best possible quality of life irrespective of the stage of their chronic disease (Healthcentric advisors, 2014).

Elderly people above 65 years of age are bound to develop lifestyle diseases. This will require spiritually care to counter the uncertainty and help them live their last days with dignity. Another process of palliative care is giving tailored care to the patients. Patients in need of palliative care have different needs which mean the care has to be tailored (National Council for Palliative Care, 2015). For instance, the case of Mary and James requires different care. Despite being a couple and of the same age, their needs are different based on Mary’s disease. However, for most people, this request is difficult to achieve based on the requirements such as logistics and conditions that facilitate palliative care including finances. This means that despite most people preferring to die at home, a large number still die in the clinical settings.

Dying at home requires that the family assist the nurses since they may not be able to stay at these homes such as providing support to the individual in the absence of the nurse. Cooperation of the family with the nurse helps in ensuring the individual gets the best care. Family therefore makes a major component to ensure patients get palliative care at home (Mayo Clinic, 2017). Lack of co-operation, especially on the part of the family can make it difficult for palliative care to be administered. The nurses can also feel uncomfortable in these homes where they are required to give palliative care (Karlsson et al. There is also the issue of emotional attachment to the patients (Herber & Johnston, 2012). Since these caregivers spend much time caring for the patients, they are like to get emotionally attached which leaves them grieving when the patient dies.

Outline the support you can provide to James during this time. Statistics show that most people prefer to die at home (Gomes et al. , 2013) but this is currently unavailable to many people for various reasons. Most palliative care patients Australia are admitted to clinical settings such as Hospices. The process of palliative care in nursing involves medication, customized and preferred treatment of patients as well as helping them live well in their dying period. Despite home palliative care being an option, it poses various challenges to the community nurses such as security, lack of cooperation, discomfort and emotional attachments. pdf Gomes, B. , Calanzani, N. , Gysels, M. , Hall, S. , & Higginson, I. The role of healthcare support workers in providing palliative and end-of-life care in the community: a systematic literature review.