Palliative Care Flashcards
What is palliative
Relief from pain and other distressing symptoms
-supportive management to help patient live as actively as possible until death
Support family during illness and bereavement
When would you start palliative care?
When death is foreseeable
-prolonged dwindling from frailty related conditions/chronic (COPD, CHF)
Where would you have palliative care
Patient preference
- home
- hospital
- hospice (predominantly charity funded)
- care home
How does palliative care benefit patients
Improve quality of life for patient and family, don’t have to see their relatives suffer
Aids symptom management when patients cannot access treatment
- Pain relief
- Antidepressants for depression
- Use of a hand held fan for breathlessness
Palliative care + oncology care for patient with high symptom burden/metastatic cancer => improved prognosis
How to manage noisy breathing
- cause
- medication
Secretions build up, too weak to cough them up => noisy breathing
Antimuscarinics - hyoscines => reduce saliva production
