End-of-Life and Palliative Care Practice
Explore issues of culture, care, and family dynamics for patients in palliative and hospice care.
Examine the philosophy and principles of hospice and palliative care that can be integrated across settings to improve symptom management and quality of care through chronic illness and at the end of life. You’ll explore pain management, communication strategies, and ethical issues that occur at this stage.
Pain and symptom relief can be vital for end-of-life patients. You’ll identify common causes and symptoms at the end of life as well as interventions that can prevent or diminish symptoms. Gain insights into the ethical issues that often arise in palliative care and the responsibility of the palliative care nurse with regards to advocacy of patient rights. As you explore these ethical issues and dilemmas, you’ll see the importance of advanced directives in preventing these situations from arising in the first place.
In the role of palliative care nurse, promoting clear, open communication among team members and the patient and family is essential. You’ll look at communication characteristics that patients and families expect from health care professionals. You’ll also consider the attributes that are needed for culturally competent nursing care by identifying the influence of culture on palliative care and examining beliefs about death and dying that are held by various cultures.
For hospice patients and their families, grief can begin long before death. You’ll appreciate the individual ways people experience loss, grief, and bereavement as you look at interventions and systems of support that may help facilitate normal grief.
Sample Topics
- Introduction to Palliative Care
- Pain Management
- Symptom Management
- Ethical Issues
- Communication/Advanced Directives
- Cultural and Spiritual Considerations
- Loss, Grief, Bereavement
- Care in the Final Hours
Sample Assignment
You’ll select one movie from a list provided by your professor. In a 15- to 20-slide PowerPoint presentation, you’ll reflect on how palliative care and/or hospice care is depicted in the film.
Learning Outcomes
- Identify the role of the nurse in providing palliative care across the lifespan.
- Describe the philosophy and principles of hospice and palliative care that can be integrated across settings to affect quality care at the end of life.
- Discuss the role of the nurse in pain assessment and management at the end of life.
- Identify common symptoms associated with end-of-life processes and nursing interventions for patients across the lifespan.
- Describe ethical issues and dilemmas that may arise in end-of-life/palliative care.
- Understand the specific roles of the nurse in ethical decision-making.
- Know the dimensions of culture and the influence of culture on palliative care for patients across the lifespan.
- Appreciate the philosophy and principles of hospice and palliative care that can be integrated across settings to affect the quality of palliative care/hospice care for the pediatric patient.
- Define the importance of ongoing communication with the interdisciplinary team, patient, and family throughout an end-of-life process.
- Distinguish between anticipatory grief, normal grief, and complicated grief; describe the tasks of grief.
- Examine personal death awareness and cumulative loss associated with professional caregiving.
- Evaluate physical, psychological, social, and spiritual needs and interventions for an imminently dying patient and their family.