APRN’s
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In healthcare there can be some barriers in caee when providing patients and family members with palliative care. Advance practice nurse practitioners can take the following steps in order to prevent any barriers when providing patients with end of life care. For instance, APRN’s should be comfortable when having discussions about death. They collaborate with the care teams to ensure that patients and families have current and accurate information about the possibility or probability of a patient’s impending death. I feel that sometimes this is a problem when taking care of a patient that has different specialties involved because not always is everyone on the same page when taking care of the patient. Its hard to talk to the patients family about palliative care when the family still thinks there is hope or a possibility of a second opinion. In order to avoid that from happening. Everyone should collaborate and agree on the same plan when treating a patient. (ANA, 2017)
Secondly, Nurse practitioners should Advocate for additional education in academic programs and work settings related to palliative care, including symptom management, supported decision-making, and end-of-life care, focusing on patients and families. Having programs that teach NPs about palliative care would be great because having to talk to family members during a time like that is difficult and NPs should have proper knowledge when doing so, so they don’t say something that will make the family uncomfortable.
The Nurse Practitioners should use research and Support the use of evidence-based and ethical care, and support decision-making for care at the end of life. By using evidence based practice the nurse practitioners can find what type of ethical care is best when treating patients and what medications and treatments work best when providing comfort care. (Cristen, P. 2014)
Lastly, Nurse practitioners and administrators should Encourage facilities and institutions to support the clinical competence and professional development that will help nurses provide excellent, dignified, and compassionate end-of-life care. This is extremely important because you want to ensure that patients are getting the best care that they can get. Not everyone is prepared when having to provide palliative or comfort care to a patient. It is important that the facility is aware and teaches its staff to be competent when treating these types of patients.
References
American Nurses Association. (2017). Call for action: Nurses lead and transform palliative care. Washington, DC: American Nurses Association.
Cristen, P. (2014). Topics of end of life decisions and nursing input. Nursing Research; 52(3):202-205.
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Natalya Khan
1/30/21, 6:58 PM
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Palatial care provided by nurses is essential for patients at the end of life. Likewise, nurses also have the responsibility of preparing the patient’s family and friends regarding the chances of their person departing in the future. Thus, primary care of palatial care and end of life care is to manage patients’ spiritual needs at the end of life, provide emotional support, and give patients physical comfort and sustenance.
According to NIH National Institute on Aging (NIA) (2017), nurses need to help patients manage physical pain at the end of life. Typically, patients experience different physical pain and discomfort at this stage because of disease or injuries they have. Also, the medication they use may have side effects of physical pain in them. Ensuring of providing comfort to the patient is the main nurses care (NIA, 2017). They can do this by offering pain killer medications or offering life support machines when they have difficulties breathing.
American Nurses Association (ANA) (2016) proposes that nurses should also provide emotional support to patients, their families, and friends at the end of life. This is because it is always difficult for patients to accept they are going to die. It is also always challenging for people around them to admit that one of them will leave forever (Moir et al., 2015). Counseling patients and family members and showing them that death is inevitable is essential for nurses in this life stage. This will help them manage depression and anxiety.
Finally, ANA (2016) proposes that needs to provide spiritual support to patients at the end of life. Spiritual support is essential because it helps patients find the meaning of life. Also, this support makes patients avoid discouragements from people around them regarding death. As a result, by providing spiritual support and guidance, patients find peace even though they are in pain or know that they will die soon (NIA, 2017).
Conclusively, nurses need to provide physical, emotional, and spiritual care to patients at the end of life. They also need to provide emotional support to patients’ family members and friends. This will help plan ahead for the patient and the family regarding the chances of the patient dying by providing emotional, spiritual, and physical solutions to their health problems.
References
American Nurses Association (ANA). (2016). Position statement: Nurses’ roles and responsibilities in providing care and support at the end of life. Silver Spring, MD: American Nurses Association.
Moir, C., Roberts, R., Martz, K., Perry, J., & Tivis, L. (2015). Communicating with
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Lisset Casanueva
1/30/21, 4:43 PM
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End of life
Nurses and healthcare providers should provide compassionate and effective end-of-life support and care to their respective patients. This includes knowing when the patient’s death is near and relaying the piece of information to the families and relatives. All healthcare providers should ensure the patients’ symptoms are managed optimally, and the family of the patient is supported during this time. Advanced Practice Registered Nurses are responsible for ensuring that they provide adequate attention to individuals in critical conditions. For instance, a physician’s hesitance in discussing the prognoses of the patients that are not favorable denies the family time for decision making. But with APRN, this information can be relayed to the patients carefully. In practice, the APRN should ensure that they knowledge of palliative care to improve services provided to people battling serious ailments. This can be done by ensuring that they have sufficient palliative care training and skills, improving end-of-life management.
In education, the APRN should ensure that they get specialist education in palliative care, which will improve the service delivery to various patients. They are responsible for assessing, making a diagnosis, and treating patients who need end-of-life management (Fliedner et al., 2021). In research, the APRN should also use evidence-based knowledge associated with the disease’s trajectory to improve communication and the end-of-life nursing care reserved for patients (American Nurses Association, 2016). Furthermore, the APRN should advocate for work environments in administration, which will provide excellent end-of-life support for dying patients during death and even after death for the families. This will ensure that all the patients in need of end-of-life management get the best quality of care that can be offered. In conclusion, it is quite clear that the APRN have an important function in ensuring that patients needing end-of-life care are managed well.
References
American Nurses Association. (2016). Nurses’ roles and responsibilities in providing care and support at the end of life. Revised position statement, 3(2).
Fliedner, M., Halfens, R. J., King, C. R., Eychmueller, S., Lohrmann, C., & Schols, J. M. (2021). Roles and Responsibilities of Nurses in Advance Care Planning in Palliative Care in the Acute Care Setting: A Scoping Review. Journal of Hospice & Palliative Nursing, 23(1), 59-68.
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