Many statistics show that millions of people worldwide need palliative care to ease the physical and emotional pain caused by serious and life-threatening illnesses. However, only a very small percentage receive this care, possibly because families are unaware of The Importance of Palliative Care Nursing in enhancing the patient’s quality of life during this challenging and critical stage.
What Is Palliative Care?
Palliative care is a healthcare approach aimed at improving the quality of life for patients with life-threatening illnesses. Its goal is to ease physical, psychological, and spiritual suffering by addressing practical needs, offering psychological counseling, and providing holistic care and support to help patients live as actively as possible until death. Palliative care also involves giving the necessary psychological and spiritual support to the patient’s family and caregivers.
The Role of a Palliative Care Nurse
Palliative care is one of the most important home nursing duties, while the main role of a palliative care nurse includes:
- Monitoring symptoms and assessing the patient’s condition to ensure appropriate palliative care is provided.
- Educating the patient, their family members, and caregivers on how to manage the severe symptoms experienced by the patient in the late stages of the disease.
- Providing psychological and moral support and guidance to patients in the final stages of their illness, especially if medical reports indicate that the patient is in the last days of life.
- Providing the necessary psychological support for the patient’s family to cope with this difficult medical condition and the loss of hope for the survival of one of their loved ones.
- One of the most important duties of home nursing in palliative care is to assist patients with mobility, personal care, and hygiene in their final days.
It is worth noting that Lana Life Care provides the top-rated Palliative care at home in Dubai by a highly skilled team of nurses and healthcare providers who are fully qualified to give this challenging service.
Physical Care and Pain Management
The Importance of Palliative Care Nursing is also reflected in providing a range of effective care measures at this critical stage, such as symptom management, especially since palliative care nurses work to identify and alleviate distressing symptoms such as severe pain, fatigue, nausea, and shortness of breath, as well as to alleviate psychological pain.
The patient and his family are also educated on how to control pain as much as possible when the patient experiences severe pain attacks that always accompany serious illnesses in the late stages.
Importance of Palliative Care Nursing
It is worth mentioning that the World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed that access to palliative care is a human right for every patient, particularly those who are suffering from a hopeless case.
The key advantages and importance of palliative care nursing come as follows:
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Comprehensive Symptoms Management
The primary goal of palliative care is to relieve pain and control the symptoms of chronic and life-threatening illnesses. To achieve this, palliative care nurses collaborate with a team of healthcare providers to ensure patients’ comfort, dignity, and quality of life during palliative care.
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Enhancing comfort and mobility
The importance of Palliative Care Nursing also lies in working to improve the overall comfort of patients by creating a calm and comfortable clinical environment, so that patients feel more relaxed and reassured during their treatment, while helping them move around safely.
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Compassionate communication
Palliative care, in particular, requires the highest levels of compassionate and humane communication. Therefore, palliative care nurses are required to not only perform traditional nursing duties, but also provide patients and their families with accurate and compassionate information at the same time, while ensuring that their relationships with patients improve, thereby improving the results.
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Improve Morale
When a family member is afflicted with a serious illness that threatens their imminent death, the patient and their family are at their worst psychological state. This is where the importance of Palliative Care Nursing comes into play, especially since this care provides all aspects of psychological and spiritual support to patients and their families.
3 Types of Palliative Care
There are many types of palliative care; the most prominent types that reflect the importance of palliative care nursing include:
1. Providing Physical Therapy
The physical side effects of serious and life-threatening illnesses often include pain and fatigue, as well as breathing problems and nausea. Palliative care aims to help reduce the impact of these symptoms through a variety of therapeutic strategies, including anti-pain and anti-nausea medications, massage services, physiotherapy at home, and more.
2. Psychological Support
Suffering from chronic illnesses, their treatments, and coping with the prospect of death undoubtedly impacts one’s psychological state. There are many ways to alleviate the patient’s suffering, such as relaxation activities and light exercises like breathing exercises, which are effective in reducing common mental health problems, such as stress, depression, and dementia.
3. Social & Emotional support
The Importance of Palliative Care Nursing is also in helping patients integrate, interact socially, and receive as much entertainment as possible. This, in turn, helps alleviate the emotional and psychological distress experienced by the patient and their family members during this critical period.
What Are the Benefits of Palliative Care?
It can be said that managing symptoms, alleviating pain, and improving the patient’s psychological, moral, and spiritual well-being is the primary and ultimate goal and most important benefit of receiving palliative care services, whether in the form of elderly care at home or in general care for patients suffering from life-threatening illnesses.
What Are the Disadvantages of Palliative Care?
One of the most serious drawbacks of providing palliative care services to patients is that it is performed by unqualified personnel, which can lead to counterproductive results. The provider fails to alleviate pain, manage symptoms, or improve the patient’s emotional state. This can, unfortunately, lead some patients to attempt to end their lives due to the great psychological and physical pain they cannot bear.
When Is It Time for Palliative Care?
Palliative care services should be sought after a patient is diagnosed with a serious, life-threatening illness, and should not be delayed until the late stages of the illness or the patient’s last days.
How Long Can Palliative Care Last?
There is no specific duration for providing palliative care to patients; it may last for weeks, months, or even years, depending on each patient’s condition, the severity of their illness, and the deterioration of their health.
How Can I Get Palliative Care?
You can obtain palliative care at home, in a care home, in hospitals, or even have day care at a hospice
Skills Needed for Palliative Care Nursing
The common skills that are required for palliative care nursing are:
- Strong communication and interpersonal skills.
- Adaptability with patient needs, moods, and personalities.
- All means of empathy and compassion, and humanity.
- Flexibility and the ability to work efficiently under pressure and handle any challenges intelligently.
- Observational skills are essential for detecting any changes in a patient’s health and taking appropriate action.
Why Choose Home-Based Palliative Nursing Care in The UAE?
Palliative nursing care, such as that provided by Lana Life Care, which offers professional home healthcare in Dubai, is always the best option, as it allows patients to spend their final days safely and securely in the comfort of their own homes, while also maintaining privacy.
At Lana Life Care, we provide home-based palliative care services, relying on nurses, healthcare providers, and doctors on call who are licensed by DHA and highly qualified to provide this delicate service.
Contact us now … Request our palliative care services… and you will find that they are provided by us with expertise, skill, and a low price.
FAQs
What is the most important aspect of palliative care?
Managing symptoms, relieving pain as much as possible, and providing psychological and spiritual support to the patient and his family.
What is the role of the palliative care nurse?
Providing physical therapy, comprehensive care for the patient.
What is the main goal of palliative care?
Helping patients with critical, life-threatening illnesses relieve pain, manage symptoms with psychological, emotional, and social support.
Palliative care vs hospice
Palliative care is provided to all patients with serious, life-threatening conditions and illnesses at any time, while hospice is a type of palliative care specifically for patients with terminal illness who have approximately six months or less to live.