As per the given case study of Beverley who is 72 years old and has had Parkinson’s disease for the last 20 years. It is required to focus on Palliative nursing care, which is appropriate for Beverley and the principles that underpin the nursing actions and behaviors.
Palliative nursing care involves inappropriate communication between the patient and the physician. It has improper control of pain. It has loads of symptoms at the end of life. According to the World Health Organization, Palliative Care is defined by the active care of patients along with their families by a professional team at the time, when the cure is never an option and the life expectancy is short. It leads to the spiritual, social, psychological and physical needs, which are necessary to support in bereavement. The treatment of palliative care improves the quality of life of Beverley apart from their family members, which deal with the diseases and threaten their lives. It includes prevention and alleviation of suffering through early detection and professional estimation of pain. It has additional symptoms related in the body, psychosocial and spiritual (Gordijn et al, 2002).
Some of the principles of palliative care are as follows:
It gives relief from pain and other distressing symptoms.
It affirms life and regards dying as a usual process.
It intends not to hasten or postpone death.
It integrates the factors of psychological or spiritual aspects of patient care.
It gives a support system to facilitate life of patients as actively as possible till death.
It gives a support system to enable the family to cope during patients and in their own mourning.
The clinical complications are distressed.
It has an approach of whole team to address the requirements of patients as well as their families.
It enhances the quality of life and positively affects the course of illness.
It is applicable in course of illness, in association with other therapies which do prolong life like chemotherapy or radiation therapy (Johnston, 2004).
The palliative care is an area of healthcare, which focuses on preventing the suffering of patients. This medicine is appropriate to the patients in all the stages, covering all types of treatments for curable illnesses. The concept of palliative care is not new as most physicians are concentrating on curing patients. The focus of the quality of life of a patient has enhanced to a great extent during the last 20 years. This type of care is given by a team of nurses, doctors and other specialists to give an added effort. It is used for curable diseases like pulmonary disorders, renal disease and chronic heart failure. The palliative nursing care gives a good range of services like relief from suffering, treatment of pain along with distressing symptoms and psychological and spiritual care. It provides relief from pain, nausea, shortness of breath along with distressing symptoms. It affirms life and considers death as a very natural process. It gives a support system to enable the coping of family. It is applicable in the scenario of illness in association with other therapies. They have a support system which helps live patients as early as possible (World Health Organization, 2009).
Teamwork plays an effective part to the philosophy of palliative care. It is cross-functional and interdisciplinary teams give ample benefits to the patients. The leadership of teams is very tough. Due to the shared responsibilities, more than some of competencies of team members are offered. The final decision maker is the patient with the environment of palliative care. The palliative care catches a number of frameworks along with approaches to meet the needs of a whole people. The concept of palliative care exists in areas of religious care, nursing instead of medicine, and it also draws heavily on a wide variety of disciplines, experience, skill and knowledge. The teams of palliative care nursing involve doctors, social workers, nurses and health practitioners along with many therapists. In this business world, organization theory has developed the concept of cross-functional teams. Teamwork is a complicated and essential component of palliative care. The requirements of people are diagnosed with threatening life diseases. It varies greatly over time. It is very rare that just one professional be able to give adequate care. The interdisciplinary team has various accesses to resources like research development and design, collection of data, analysis of data, numerical consultation, support staff, sustained communication and costs of publication and presentation. Accountability of every team member increase on time and the designated tasks are completed, and quality standards are maintained. The shared responsibility for completing the tasks and preparation of materials for propagation will increase the level of productivity of the team of geriatrics. These team meetings give ample opportunities for informal contacts and good feedback related to patient care. These meetings also allow easy accessibility and minimize the time, required by healthcare professionals to connect with each other about caring of a patient (Thompson et al, 2006).
The palliative care team spans across sites of care. It typically consists of one of the subsequent disciplines like nurse, physician, and social worker, dedicated time of staff of a bereavement or pastoral counselor of care. Advocates of patient, pain experts of anesthesia, rehabilitation therapists, and aids of home health provide important support and clinical services. The team of Palliative care possesses certain skills such as special training or work experience in palliative medicine along with home settings of nursing. Evaluation of medicine and decision making along with pain and symptom management are some other skills. They have the capability to address tough decisions and possess sophisticated planning of discharge. They also have the competence to work and talk effectively with other professionals of health. They carry the professionalism for family and patient communications. The respect and positive approach of colleagues in the staff of hospital are the essential prerequisites for a successful palliative care team (Thomas, 2003).
Making a team involves the mission as well as other tasks and the team members define the relationships and roles. The process of team development is repeated, every time the concerto of team changes. Palliative care of nursing includes valuing all the characteristics along with the experience with the person. It demands an attitude along with approach, which is beyond diagnosis along with the immediate medical problems. It is a mixture of knowledge as well as skills and compassion in the equal measure. It is therefore, hopeful, meaningful, sensitive and dynamic (Macpherson, 2002).
