Dealing with Patients in Palliative Care and Coping with the Death of a Client.

1. Running Head: DEALING WITH PATIENTS IN PALLIATIVE CARE AND COPING WITH
THE DEATH OF A CLIENT
DEALING WITH PATIENTS IN PALLIATIVE CARE AND COPING WITH THE DEATH
OF A CLIENT
Name
Professor
Institution
Course
Date

2. DEALING WITH PATIENTS IN PALLIATIVE CARE AND COPING WITH THE DEATH
OF A CLIENT 2
Introduction
Patients in palliative care require efficient healthcare services to reduce stress and offer
relief of symptoms and support to their loved ones. Death has always been and is, for man, a
subject of deep reflection and meditation, both from the physical and psychological point of
view. However, in advanced hospital settings and societies, it is becoming increasingly difficult
to coexist or accept the mere idea of death, especially for new health care providers (Qaseem et
al., 2008). Nursing professionals are not exempt from the influence of society and from the
experience of emotions generated by death and working with dying patients in palliative care. As
a result, it is quite necessary for healthcare providers including nurses to be prepared to cope
with patient loss.
Increasing the comfort and well-being of the patient and his or her loved ones in the wake
of a terminal disease are the main objectives of nurses working in palliative care. These
professionals play a key role in patient care in their last moments to provide relief and decrease
pain and other symptoms to patients who have a prognosis of life less than six months (Gerow et
al., 2010). The World Health Organization defined this care as an approach that helps promote
the quality of life of patients and their families in the event that they are faced with problems
related to life-threatening illnesses. As a nurse, I can achieve this through relief and prevention
of excess suffering by early intervention and best practices in treatment and care of patients
experiencing pain and other psychological and physical problems (Gerow et al., 2010). During
palliative care, the entire health team becomes involved, but nurses are the ones who have a more
direct participation, since they are the ones who meet the immediate needs of these patients.

3. DEALING WITH PATIENTS IN PALLIATIVE CARE AND COPING WITH THE DEATH
OF A CLIENT 3
Best practices in caring for terminally ill patients in palliative care highlights the importance of
nursing so that this care is performed in the best possible way. Palliative care is absolutely
necessary with patients who have a terminal illness (Sepúlveda et al., 2002). This does not mean
that only geriatric people should be assisted, but also people with advanced, incurable and
progressive diseases like cancer. In this sense, palliative care is not only directed towards the
patient, but also includes the whole environment and provides a greater degree of comfort during
the course of the disease.
The quality of nursing interventions requires a deepening of the individualized care
defined in the patient's own terms, especially when the disease is persistent, irreversible and will
lead to death in a given period of time. In this sense, death or its proximity, generates a broad set
of attitudes and emotions of varying intensity. It is also pointed out that among the most frequent
emotional responses that death involves are anxiety, fear and depression (Sepúlveda et al., 2002).
In my functions as a nurse, I have a responsibility to help patients’ families to face this transition
from life to death while at the same time staying strong myself. Nurses should do this to help
both those who suffer from diseases in palliative care and the loved ones that surround them. A
warm, supportive and reassuring attitude is expected with the patient’s family. Therefore, the
concern here is to understand how prepared a nursing professional is about death and the
attitudes he or she adopts before it.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we can understand that for every human being, witnessing a death can
cause a strange, unique and very personal but infrequent experience. Nonetheless, it has been
observed that for the nursing professional it is a more frequent experience since death is now

4. DEALING WITH PATIENTS IN PALLIATIVE CARE AND COPING WITH THE DEATH
OF A CLIENT 4
institutionalized. It is thus the responsibility of nurses and other care professionals to help
patients and their families recover from such experiences while at the same time coping with it
themselves. This institutionalization of death makes the nursing professional have an important
participation of this process, both with the dying patient and with their families.

5. DEALING WITH PATIENTS IN PALLIATIVE CARE AND COPING WITH THE DEATH
OF A CLIENT 5
References
Qaseem, A., Snow, V., Shekelle, P., Casey, D. E., Cross, J. T., & Owens, D. K. (2008).
Evidence-based interventions to improve the palliative care of pain, dyspnea, and depression at
the end of life: a clinical practice guideline from the American College of Physicians. Annals of
internal medicine, 148(2), 141-146.
Gerow, L., Conejo, P., Alonzo, A., Davis, N., Rodgers, S., & Domian, E. W. (2010). Creating a
curtain of protection: nurses’ experiences of grief following patient death. Journal of Nursing
Scholarship, 42(2), 122-129.
Sepúlveda, C., Marlin, A., Yoshida, T., & Ullrich, A. (2002). Palliative care: the World Health
Organization's global perspective. Journal of pain and symptom management, 24(2), 91-96.

6. DEALING WITH PATIENTS IN PALLIATIVE CARE AND COPING WITH THE DEATH
OF A CLIENT 5
References
Qaseem, A., Snow, V., Shekelle, P., Casey, D. E., Cross, J. T., & Owens, D. K. (2008).
Evidence-based interventions to improve the palliative care of pain, dyspnea, and depression at
the end of life: a clinical practice guideline from the American College of Physicians. Annals of
internal medicine, 148(2), 141-146.
Gerow, L., Conejo, P., Alonzo, A., Davis, N., Rodgers, S., & Domian, E. W. (2010). Creating a
curtain of protection: nurses’ experiences of grief following patient death. Journal of Nursing
Scholarship, 42(2), 122-129.
Sepúlveda, C., Marlin, A., Yoshida, T., & Ullrich, A. (2002). Palliative care: the World Health
Organization's global perspective. Journal of pain and symptom management, 24(2), 91-96.