Palliative Care

Chapter 20: Palliative Care

Overview:

• Provides a comprehensive list of how to provide appropriate palliative care
• Discusses the aims and delivery of palliative care
• Suggests how best to communicate with palliative care patients, their family and friends
• Focuses on the ethical issues at the end of life including euthanasia

Description:

Palliative care recognises that cure or long term control of disease is not possible; palliative care is thus concerned with quality of life rather than quantity of life. The World Health Organization (2002) has defined palliative care as: “The active total care of patients whose disease is not responsive to curative treatment.” This chapter concerns palliative care; its levels, aims, types and more.

Topics:

• Levels of palliative care
• Aims and delivery of palliative care
• Location of palliative care
• The concept of total suffering
• Thinking ahead
• Sexuality and body image
• Curative care, palliative care, and terminal care
• Communication
• Ethical issues at the end of life
  • Differing values; Not For Resuscitation (NFR); requests for euthanasia; Advance Health Care Directives; withholding or ceasing treatment; and hastening death versus alleviating symptoms

Speaker / Author:

Anne Morgan
Anne is a registered nurse who works as the palliative care nurse consultant at Christchurch Hospital, New Zealand. She holds a postgraduate certificate in palliative care and a postgraduate diploma in health sciences, and is completing her master’s degree. Anne has worked in the area of oncology and palliative care for more than 25 years in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. She helped to develop the Christchurch Hospital Palliative Care Service in 1999. She is also involved in graduate and post-graduate education and runs a communication business providing workshops for health professionals and for people who have life threatening illness.

Anne has developed a hospital palliative care website to provide specialist palliative care knowledge to health professionals and patients. She has also developed a number of guidelines and protocols for palliative care in acute care settings. Anne has represented the nursing profession on several regional and National groups and is currently an executive committee member of the Canterbury/West Coast division of the Cancer Society of New Zealand.

Professional Reviews: