Week 34

Question 1

What is palliative care?

Answer 1

“the active holistic care of individuals across all ages with serious health-related suffering due to severe illness, and especially of those near the end-of-life. It aims to improve the quality of life of patients, their families and their caregivers”

The elimination of serious health-related suffering includes the various health conditions or severe illness that are most likely to generate a need for palliative care

Health-related suffering is considered serious when it compromises physical, social, spiritual, and/or emotional functioning.

Question 2

Define Total suffering

Answer 2

“experienced by persons, not merely by bodies, and has its source in challenges that threaten the intactness of the person as a complex social and psychologic entity”

Suffering is an unpleasant or even anguishing experience which can severely affect a person on a psychophysical and even existential level.

Question 3

What are the Goals and aims of palliative care

Answer 3

The goal of palliative care is to prevent and relieve suffering, and to support the best possible quality of life for patients and their families, regardless of the stage of the disease or the need for other therapies

For example: cancer, heart and lung disease, dementia, renal failure, degenerative neurological conditions

Aims to neither hasten nor to postpone death
Aims to provide relief from distressing symptoms

Question 4

Taha Wairua

Answer 4

(Spiritual) Knowing the things that give us meaning. For some, it’s about religious faith, or a spiritual connection to the universe and ancestors. But it can also be about learning to celebrate our own story: who we are, what we believe, where we belong and where we’re going.

Question 5

Taha Tinana

Answer 5

(Physical well-being): How our body feels, moves and heals, and how we care for it. Nourishing and strengthening our physical wellbeing helps us cope with the ups and downs and life

Question 6

Taha Whānau

Answer 6

(Family and social well-being): Our family and friends, the people we share our life with, and who make us feel like we belong

Question 7

Taha Hinengaro

Answer 7

(Mental and emotional well-being): Our thoughts and
feelings from our mind, heart and conscience. How we think, feel and communicate. Our mind and body are inseparable.

Question 8

Whats Primary palliative care

Answer 8

Should be integral to all kinds of care for people with advanced diseases.

Question 9

Whats Specialised palliative care

Answer 9

Specialty teams available to offer advice about care

Question 10

What are the 5 stages of dying

Answer 10

Disease relentless, change underway, recovery less likely, dying begins, actively dying

Question 11

When is end of life

Answer 11

When they are likely to die within the next 12 months

Question 12

Who are some of the other health care professionals who support clients in hospice?

Answer 12

• General Partitioner, practice nurses
• Medical Specialists, wider specialist team members
• Physiotherapist
• Occupational therapist
  Volunteers
  Māori/Pasifika support workers, local Iwi, other cultural advisors/support peoples

Question 13

What are some of our societal beliefs about death and dying?

Answer 13

• Modern medicine can/should be able to fix this
• Death is failure and someone must be accountable
• Death can always be “peaceful” (the sanitised vision of dying)
• If we don’t talk of death then it won’t happen
• Grief is pathological and has a “cure”

Question 14

How would you describe the services provided by hospice to a client and their whānau?

Answer 14

Hospice care focuses on the care, comfort, and quality of life of a person with a serious illness who is approaching the end of life

Question 15

What are common symptoms in the palliative phase of illness

Answer 15

Pain, Constipation, Dyspnoea, Nausea and vomiting, Delirium,

Question 16

What is the role of nurses in palliative care

Answer 16

Monitoring patients, pain management, administering medication, managing equipment, and providing patients with personal care, such as bathing and dressing

Question 17

What is the role of student nurse in palliative care?

Answer 17

• Listen
• Take advantage of opportunity for learning
• Read
• Try out challenging conversations on friends, family members
• Consider the art of silence
• Always consider how you or a family member would like to be treated or looked after towards the end of your life In clinical setting consider the treatment intent of the patient’s care
• Do they understand it
• Do the staff understand it
• Consider likely outcomes and how you may respond