Giving Hope to Families in Palliative Care and Implications

Questions: 1. Giving hope to families in palliative care and implications for practice? 2. When end-of-life care is discussed, it is usual to first consider adult patients receiving palliative care. However, end-of -life care also pertains to children. What differences exist when communicating to the family of a paediatric patient receiving palliative care to that of an adult? Answers: Giving Hope To Families In Palliative Care And Implication For Practice 1: Summary Palliative care is a modern approach. It improves the quality of life of patients and their families for life-threatening illness. At the very first palliative care is applicable in the course of illness. Death in our society is viewed generally with anxiety and discomfort. Especially in case of children palliative care is very important. The main challenges of nurse are to take care of a dying child. The aim of the palliative care is essential to help children for life threatening illness. Hope is defined as a feeling of expectation and desire for a particular thing to happen. Hope plays a vital role in helping overcome the grief for the patient and also to the family of a dying child. Depression is caused by hopelessness. The parent who know that their child will die soon, are losing their hope. But it should not be discouraged by nurses because it does not mean that the child or the family is in denial of the inevitable prognosis. Honest and open communication is needed. The discu ssion is important with the families and client at the time of diagnosis so that they can face the real situation and make a better realistic decision for a palliative care. If the family of a child permits preservation of hope, undoubtedly the way of communicating affects the family of a child. A doctor may also suggest having some hope for the ill child. It can provide the family with comfort in terms of the uncertain future. Hope is the main thing for a family of a patient who are preparing for death. 2: 1. Palliative care for child is closely related to the adult but their needs are very different. Palliative care of child describes total care of body, mind and spirit for the child (de Lima, 2012). It is vital to give support to the family of a child. Stress, pain and symptoms are focused for a pediatric palliative care. The aim is to evaluate the quality of life for both the family and the child (O'Shea and Bennett Kanarek, 2013). A team of doctors provide the pediatric palliative care. The complexity in illness of a child is more than the adults. Because of the different anatomy and physiology the same illness acts differently 2. The challenges are: The family of a pediatric care patient should give support to the patient as long as it is required. Also plays a vital and main role for improvement of the condition of patient. The family should maintain the advice of the expert. The family should have knowledge about the illness and also the symptoms. The family should be able to manage the immediate condition if any abnormality is observed in the patient. It is clear that the patient does not long to live but it is not informed to the patient.3. Considering the case study 1, it is clear that the patient does not have much time left but the family still appear hopeful. Expectation, feeling and desire for a certain thing are together called hope (Bergstraesser, 2013). It has some positive and negative aspect for encouraging hope. The positive aspect is that the family is not giving up and still they have faith for the patient to cure (Ostendorf, 2015). And the negative point is that the family is not acceptin g the real and present situation. If the spiritual, psychological and social support to the family may improve the quality of life of the family then it is beneficial for the family. References: Bergstraesser, (2013). Pediatric Palliative Care: A Reflection on Terminology.Palliative Care: Research and Treatment, p.31. de Lima, L. (2012). IAHPC list of essential practices in palliative care.Progress in Palliative Care, 20(4), pp.219-222. O'Shea, E. and Bennett Kanarek, R. (2013). Understanding Pediatric Palliative Care: What It Is and What It Should Be.Journal of Pediatric Oncology Nursing, 30(1), pp.34-44. Ostendorf, A. (2015). Book Review: Pediatric Neurocritical Care.Journal of Child Neurology.