8.1 End of Life Care Flashcards
Care of Dying
- Technologies applied in advanced illness make the process of dying anything but peaceful
- Technological Imperative practice - Every available means to extend life must be tried
- Hippocratic oath - Do not harm. Prohibits physicians from administering deadly drugs
- Living Will - Medical decisions left to family members
Brain Death
- Irreversible unconsciousness with complete loss of brain function (heart may still beat)
- Accepted criteria for establishing time of death
- Fixed and dilated pupils (irreversible cessation of brain)
- Lack of eye movement
- Absence of respiratory reflexes (apnea)
- Unresponsiveness to pain stimuli
- Evidence that patient had a disease that could cause brain death
FINAL DETERMINATION OF BRAIN DEATH Lack of electrical activity in the brain taken by 2 EEG’s 12 and 24 hours apart - Must rule out hypothermia or drug toxicities (mimics brain death)
- Spinal reflexes and CNS function can still persist
Nurse Role in End of Life Care
- Knowledge of palliative care and end of life principles are essential to nursing
National Consensus Project for Quality Palliative Care
2013
- 8 domains of human approach to care of dying
- Structure, physical aspects, psychological aspects, social aspects, spiritual aspects, ethical cultural aspects, end of life care.
Focus on dying
- Motivated by an aging population
- Publicity and prevalence surrounding life-threatening illness
- Increased likelihood of prolonged period of chronic illness prior to death
Care of dying should include..
- Timely access to end of life care
- Comprehensive coverage for palliative services
- Improved communication between provider
- Emphasis on advanced care end-of-life planning
- Professional education and development
- Stronger public education and engagement
Technology
- End of life has shifted from communicable diseases to chronic degenerative diseases
- People are surviving disease because of technology
- Death has been shifted from home setting to hospital
- Great number of deaths occur in ICU
- Causes death to be anything but peaceful
Glasser and Strauss
4 Contexts related to dying
4 contexts related to dying
Closed awareness - Patient is unaware of dying but everyone else knows
Suspected awareness - Patient suspects what others know and attempts to find out
Mutual Pretense - Everyone knows but pretends otherwise
Open awareness - Everyone knows and openly acknowledges
Assisted Suicide
- Providing another person a means to end their life
Oregon Death with Dignity Act (1994)
- Washington state followed in 2008
- Legalized assisted suicide
DNR (Do not Resuscitate)
- Physician Order
- Has different levels from doing nothing to doing partial care
Advanced Directives
- Written documents of the patients preferences
Living Will
- Patients treatment preferences
Proxy
- Authorize someone to represent them if they cannot represent themselves
- Authorizes only for medical services
Durable Power of Attourney
- Authorizes individual to make decisions on behalf of the patient when they are not able to
- Includes everything
Palliative Care
- Comprehensive symptom management
- Psychosocial care, spiritual support needed to enhance quality of life
- Treating suffering
- Started off as hospice care, end of life care but evolved to be all under palliative care
- It can occur in any setting
- Death must be accepted for hospice care
- Pain and symptoms of terminal illness must be managed
- Family must also be cared for as a single unit
- Home care of dying is necessary
Bereavement Care
- Provided care to family after death
Hospice
- Concept of care. Doesn’t matter where the patient is, its the concept of care
- Not fully integrated into mainstream health because of difficulty of making terminal prognosis, especially in non-cancer patients
- Strong association of hospice with death because there can be treatments even in late stages of illness
- Least likely is also financial pressure for providers to continue care.
Hospice Care
- All covered under Medicare/Medicaid 4 levels of hospice care - Routine Home Care - Inpatient Respite Care - Continuous Care - General Inpatient Care