Essays on Palliative Medicine

End-of-life care refers to the provision of care to patients with incurable terminal illnesses and patients who are in a permanent vegetative state, and that type of care is one of the most commonly debated ethical issues in contemporary health care for two reasons. First, because of the development and advancement of medical techniques and technologies, physicians and nurses are now able to prolong the patients’ lives, but those interventions do not always improve the patients’ quality of life or maintain their human dignity (Cherry & Jacob, 2016). Second, the human population is aging, so the prevalence of terminal illnesses ...

Literature review

Kaasa, S. (2015). Is Cancer Pain Control Improved by a Simple WHO Pain Analgesic Ladder Approach Combined With Tumor-Directed Treatment?.Journal of Clinical Oncology, JCO647537.

Article summary

This article takes into consideration the role that the WHO analgesic ladder plays in addressing cancer pain in palliative care patients. The authors identify that cancer pain occurs in 90% of cancer patients but only half them are under proper pain management. To this effect, therefore, there is the need for applying opioids under the WHO ladder guidelines as a way of addressing cancer pain in oncology care patients.

This is a narrative qualitative research ...

The term public health nurse, as was originally intended was to treat social, and economic challenges, not just taking care of the sick individuals. It started in the mid-18th century in England, where Florence Nightingale gave knowledge to the first nurses in the district nursing model. Together with her classmate, Henry Street Settlement House was developed, New York City. Regardless of the social assertions that the poor were responsible for their social status, Wald often emphasized the dignity of a person of even the poorest in the society. Also, it is through her that in 1895, she and her ...

Pain Management in Hospice Care

Pain is one of the sources of discomfort for the patients admitted in hospice care. Motivated by the need to rectify the paucity of information on the characteristics of pain for the patients who have other terminal diseases other than cancer, Romem et al., (2015) performed a retrospective study in which they wanted to compared the characteristics of pain for those patients admitted for dementia treatment and those with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) with those admitted for cancer. Romem et al., (2015) found that there was a high prevalence of pain as a source of discomfort for patients ...

Abstract

For a long time, the medical profession has subscribed to many ethical statements that have been developed primarily for patients’ benefits. As members of the medical profession, physicians should always recognize their actual responsibility of the patients, society, self, and other professionals. Adhering to the set principles of professional conduct is essential in acting ethically in the profession. The topic of physician-assisted suicide (PAS) is controversial in the American medial context. Physically assisted suicide and euthanasia are often used interchangeably. The ethics of these issues are squarely placed before the public eye. This paper focuses on the ethics surrounding ...

ARTICLE REVIEW: Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide in dementia

Tomlinson, E., Spector, A., Nurock, S., & Stott, J. (2015). Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide in dementia: A qualitative study of the views of former dementia carers. Palliative Medicine, 29(8), 720-726. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0269216315582143

Introduction

The interest on the topic of mercy killing or assisted dying for people suffering from dementia from media and the scholarly world, little has been done to research the perspective of the closest people who are affected by the act. Studies estimate that three people over the age of sixty-five years of age succumb to dementia, with most of them not in their right minds when they die. ...

Introduction

Proper treatment is essential to the recovery of patients. Lack thereof compromises the possibilities of a patient getting better due to the administration of bad medical practices. Palliative care is an efficient procedure commonly utilized at the end of life treatment. It involves the initiatives implemented by a health institution to help improve the patient’s quality of life and the response of their families to an illness that threatens one’s life. This approach is made possible through assessment, prevention, pain treatment, psychological, physical and spiritual discomforts (Bhatnagar & Joshi, 2011). With this in mind, it is worth appreciating ...

Introduction

Palliative care is associated with two major components. The first component is related to the emotional and psychological care of the patient and family members. The second component is based on the identification of pain and utilizing pain relief interventions based on current evidence. Palliative care is mainly provided by healthcare providers with a support from a team of experts trained and experienced in palliative care (Kwon, 2013. p. 910). The main objective of palliative care is relieve the patient from pain and pain symptoms. Palliative care and effective pain management are the cornerstones for a terminally-ill patient. The ...