Palliative Care-the Nurse's Role

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Palliative Care: The Nurse’s Role Brenda L. Paul Breckenridge School of Nursing ITT Technical Institute NU-1320 Ms. Pat Safford, RN, BSN, MSN August 10, 2014 Introduction Palliative care in nursing encompasses care of children, young juveniles, and adults of all ages. According to Howell et al, “The World Health Organization (WHO) definition of palliative care emphasized it might be appropriate for patients with all types of life-threatening illnesses (not just cancer, as in the past) from diagnosis through to end-of-life and bereavement” (Howell, Hardy, Boyd, Ward, Roman & Johnson, 2014, p. 246). There have been recent changes in health care…such as the development and funding of other practitioner roles…including site-specific cancer nurse specialists, who’ve a growing role in survivorship care, etc., …which has contributed to a lack of consistent agreement …stereotyped/out-of-date views regarding …roles and …relation to the delivery of palliative care (Howell et al, 2014, p. 246). Since nurses …have the most contact and spend the most time with patients facing a life-limiting illness, poor palliative care competence is likely to affect care quality and quality of life for those patients. In addition, lack of preparation for palliative care is likely to cause stress and anxiety among nurses providing such care, potentially affecting their own health in the long run (Desbiens, Gagnon, & Fillion, 2012, p. 2114). Palliative care for children and young people (CYP) has been “increasingly recognized as requiring specialist input. Nurses with…the requisite knowledge, skills and experience in …CYP palliative care are often few; have inadequate…service development; educational provision,…resulting in feelings of inadequacy, emotional distancing, and burnout being reported more prevalently among professionals who have been insufficiently prepared, educated or

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