Providing Health Care For the Dying - Assignment Example

Topic: Palliative Care: On Communication of the End of Life Providing health care for the dying is difficult for caregivers because they needed more support and sensitivity to patient in intensive care, as well as and to its family whose expectations of care giver role may have exceeded the standard service. Such is often true to patients whose hours of breath are limited by cancer or of any incurable illnesses. They needed more information and technical support from health care professionals. This essay will explicate the pertinent actions necessary in communicating patient case with the family, on conducting the family case, and in recording consistently the remaining days or hours of the patients as well as the responses of its family in these critical hours. 1. Preparing for a family meeting  -- This refer to the necessary requirements to be done by the care giver to set appropriate measure to communicate to the patient’s family. This stage may include formal or informal manner of putting across the message about the imperative of devoting fiduciary time together in order to prepare them psychologically and emotionally the possible termination of life. The nurse or care giver must ready all desired information available relating to the patient condition; the necessary or expected responses of the family; the needed medicines; and the desired emotional acceptance of patient’s family members to an impending unchangeable fate. 2. Conducting a family meeting – this refer to the actual meeting of the medical professional and nurses with the family to discuss empirically the condition of the patient. This is a sober condition where medical practitioners would persuasively convey to the family the patient’s state and the impending limitation of its life toward potential termination. This meeting should be conducted in confidentially, cordial but often straightforward, and delivered with certain level of empathy. Attending physician will be illustrating to the family that all medical care has been exhausted for the patient and that the necessary support care needed to remove potential hindrances that may impinge the optimal transference of supportive strategies from health care professionals to family who are recipient of palliative care. The meeting will likewise discuss the needed supportive care and plan for the next step intervention that are relevant and imperative to make palliative care effective for the dying. This is the most difficult part because the practitioner is called to balance one’s values in decision-making, these being the cornerstone, principles and convictions that would be measured. They will also be illustrating their relational capital to access resources necessary for patient and for its family. Such meant that they ought to consider all factors available: family’s environment, income, home relations and family’s expertise to manage the remaining days for the dying patient. Communicating with the family entails exercise of bridging leadership method. Such meant that in the course of communicating to the family about impending death of the patient, they will pass thru a reflective and generative dialogue to bring about sense of co-ownership over patient’s death. As leader, the medical professional should bring about the emerging issues and the required response from physicians, nurses and of the family. Clarification can be done thereafter to also ascertain the cultural practices and beliefs of the families in handling the dying. The third part is the process of realizing the plan of actions for the patient. They need to innovate and strategize instead of being caught in the quagmire of financial loses. All these should be effected following all the ethical considerations of medical practitioners and of its frameworks combined with effective oversight and general accountability for the patient. This is because medical practitioners hope to provide the right health care for the dying by being the appropriate provider, at right time, place and price. IN so doing, the medical professional and the family of the patient will be enjoying shared responsibility and accountability. The communication therefor passed through the process o f sensing, presencing and of realizing. Thus, awareness of the case, presenting the patient’s issue analysis and performing family response analysis is done in accordance to professional mandate of the health care provider. Both meeting and communication aided in fostering trust by dialogue, facilitating shared planning, and developing shared understating on the next necessary steps until the termination of life. In effecting all these, practitioners were able to great institutional arrangement with the family; conduct responsive and innovative program; generate and exact accountability. The monitoring and evaluation of the patient’s state will be done likewise to achieve desired outcome. 2. Documentation and follow-up – Health care provider will sustain the documentation of the patient’s progress. Documentation contribute to effective health information system to nurture a credible and accurate health institution. It will also be an instrument which would facilitate easy resolution to the problems and be the bases for decision-making and policy formulation. Documentation include the processes of (1) data gathering and review, (2) data validation, (3) data analysis, and (4) data utilization. Gathering of data refer to the process of obtaining desired or necessary information from all possible sources. Data validation is a remedial process to ascertain accuracy of information while data analysis involved the process of translating information into graphs, tables, and charts for meaningful utilization of the information. The latter is essential in the strategic planning and in responding situation. Following the patient’s progress means doing regular monitoring and updating of data to have pro-active assessment of real time situation ofteh patient. Skills needed for development Taking care of the patient require more innovative and multidisciplinary skills and knowledge .  This literature review exposes the nature and extent of physical and psychosocial morbidity and economic disadvantage, home palliative caregivers suffer as a direct result of their caregiving role. Research has demonstrated that caregivers providing support to individuals receiving palliative care report unmet needs for information, communication, service provision and support from health and community services. Three sets of challenges are highlighted in this literature review which help explain why the needs of home palliative caregivers are largely unmet: (i) barriers to seeking help; (ii) a dearth of research-based interventions focused on reducing the negative aspects of caregiving; and (iii) a number of impediments to effective policy and service development for family caregivers. Furthermore, invited submissions from caregivers echoed and confirmed the issues reported in the literature. Recommendations for enhancing caregiver support are outlined. References Aoun SM, Kristjanson LJ, Currow DC, Hudson PL. Caregiving for the terminally ill: at what cost? WA Centre for Cancer and Palliative Care, School of Nursing Midwifery and Postgraduate Medicine, Edith Cowan University, Churchlands, Australia Palliat Med. 2005 Oct;19(7):551-5. J Palliat Med. 2004 Feb;7(1):19-25. Meeting the supportive needs of family caregivers in palliative care: challenges for health professionals. Hudson PL, Aranda S, Kristjanson LJ. Source School of Nursing and Centre for Palliative Care, University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.  Read More