Today’s health care focuses on quality of life. The experience of watching someone die as a nursing assistant can cause feelings of helplessness. Working with a terminally ill patient can be exhausting at times due to the emotions involved but can also be the most rewarding nursing experience ever. Understanding the dying patient will allow you to become a more compassionate and effective caregiver. Stages of Grief Preparing for death affects the patients’ behavior and emotions.
My question was: Mrs. Thompson, I would like to know from your experience which is better for the patient and his/her family, hospice at home or in a hospital setting. Sometimes, there are many problems for the family to care for their love ones at this time due to emotional feelings and physical burden. What do you think is best? Mrs. Thompson answer: Philosophically and practically, the goal of hospice care is to stabilize the patient's condition in order to permit him to return home, where most people say they would prefer to die. There are several points to note, in this context: 1.
Nursing Consideration for Providing Supporting Care for the Terminally Ill Patient Nursing Consideration for Providing Supporting Care for the Terminally Ill Patient In 1716, Christopher Bullock wrote “‘tis impossible to be sure of anything but Death and Taxes.” Death being one of these inevitabilities hopefully leaves you more empathetic in life and in offering supportive care. There are many different ways of providing care for a terminally ill patient. None more important that offering patient supportive based care. Family members may find it challenging, both physically and emotionally, caring for a terminally ill loved one, but need to be aware of their own feelings and make decisions based on the what is best for the suffering person. A caregiver, while providing supporting care can instill a sense of strength.
The third and final stage is compassion fatigue. If a nurse reaches this stage it is likely according to Coetzee, that he or she may never fully recover their ability to nurture. This paper will focus on five concepts of compassion fatigue; including warning signs, causes, physical, emotional, and spiritual needs, and coping strategies and resources for those combating compassion fatigue. The first concept that this writer will focus on is burnout. According to a study published in Nurse Leadership in September 2006, an estimated 58 percent of nurses and 54 percent of nurse managers suffer from some level of burnout.
Essay Development- Outline ENG101B. 01 English Composition Catherine Ealy-Simon Instructor: Noura Badawi April 10, 2013 Caring for a Dementia Spouse Thesis: Previous studies have shown that taking care of elderly, demented patients carries a high cost to caregiver’s health, and is associated with negative consequences for physical and mental health. Family members should seek help from counselors or the patients’ physicians of their phases of dementia and how it would affect them and coping with the idea of telling other family members about a spouse or patient with dementia. Abuse is commonly an all-time high with demented patient who is living within their own personal homes with their spouses, living with relative members of their families and nursing facilities where abuse is commonly done there as well. I.
I feel like my job as a nurse would be to make sure that no errors occur, and that the patient is safe at all times. When researching my topic, I learned that a lot of patients in the hospital die due to medical errors. I also learned that a lot of injuries occur among hospitalized older adults due to safety related issues. I think it’s sad that many people are being harmed and losing their life all because of something that could have been prevented. Patient safety is a huge issue that should never be overlooked.
I work in a care home on two nursing units where very often I have to take care about terminally ill patients. Care provided must be very gentle and tailored towards resident's needs as well gaining knowledge about resident's illnesses and their stage from care plans and hospital documents is crucial. Depending on resident's condition accompanying and supporting is extremely important as well, because terminally ill person in most of the cases goes through five-stage process of dying which are: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. And on every stage such an individual is going to need appropriate support and understanding. As a carer I have a duty and a desire to help as much as it is possible by meeting all the mentioned needs and reassuring residents using all my knowledge and experience which I have
A nurse may personally feel that a patient who is dying of cancer should utilize any and all pain management options available to them, however, if the patient does not wish to use pain medications because he/she feels “out of it” or is afraid of becoming “addicted”, the nurse needs to respect that patient’s choice. One may personally feel that a patient should try all treatment options available when dealing with an illness such as cancer, but needs to be respectful if a patient does not wish to continue treatment or try something new even if the nurse feels that is the “right” thing to do. B. In the scenario presented, different strategies can be used in the Thomas’s situation to improve the quality of life for Mrs. Thomas and her husband during this illness. First of all, discussing with Mr. and Mrs. Thomas what their wants/needs are is imperative.
The Ethical and Legal Issues of withdrawal of treatment or life support Willie Hudson State College of Florida Ethical & Legal Issues in Health Care NUR 3826 Dr. Keri Hockett September 10, 2014 The Ethical and Legal Issues of withdrawal of treatment or life support As a critical care nurse in a very busy fast paced intensive care unit, I deal with life and death circumstances on a daily basis. The patients’ in our unit are very ill and have multiple comorbidities, in which subsequently the outcome is often death. Although, death is the conclusion of life, I strongly believe that nurses must advocate for their patients and families, to honor and respect patient’s advanced directives within their scope of practice. Approximately 20% of all deaths in the United States occur in an intensive care unit, with roughly 70% to 90% of these deaths following a decision to withdraw life support. The critical care nurse plays a vital role in the withdrawal of life support because they are present at the bedside more than any other team member of the health care team and are responsible for carrying out physician’s orders to withdraw artificial support (Kirchhoff & Kowalkowski, 2010).
It is important to support people who are nearing the end of life to maintain the best quality of life possible. To support them in having much control over decisions, care and treatment as possible. Good end of life care helps patients with life-limiting conditions to live as well as possible until they die,and to die with dignity. The term "life-limiting" includes organ or systems failure, where patients are likely to die suddenly as a result of an acute crisis ( for example heart failure, chronic respiratory disease). Life threatening acute conditions caused by sudden catastrophic events (for example brain damage from head injury).