Palliative Care Simulation Reflection

The past year I have seen how much of a big difference hospice makes. I have seen how patients and their families become attached to their hospice team. I have witnessed all hospice team members working together to be supportive to families when their loved one has passed. I never knew how much of a difference hospice can make until my time at Homestead. I saw how the entire hospice team cared for each and every patient and wanted to make the patient’s last days the best they could possibly be. Homestead hospice is fulfilling its goal of making the patient as comfortable as can be while in the dying process. Homestead Hospice is contracted with local nursing homes and assisted living places to help if a patient wants placement, or if

Palliative care is a form of care for people with serious illnesses that is primarily focused on giving relief to ill patients and to improve quality of life and well-being. Hospice care is similar to palliative care because it helps patients to improve their quality of life through caring for them, not curing them. In contrast, palliative care can be implemented at any point after a patient is diagnosed with an illness, however hospice care has specific qualifications and is used when a patient only has 6 months to live. Palliative and hospice care location can both be administered at a patient’s home. Although palliative care is usually taken place in a hospital or facility of care and hospice care usually doesn’t narrow down to a specific

For this vSim assignment, I had to repeat the scenario three times before obtaining 100% on it, since I had forgotten about a few important steps when assessing my patient, and in my second try, I had forgotten to check the patient 's electronic health record even though I had already fixed my previous mistakes in the assessment. Three of the most important things I had to do differently in this scenario were to ask the patient about allergies to maintain patient safety before administering any drugs ordered, use the incentive spirometry to improve breathing and educate her about it since she had a hard time breathing due to pain, and educate the patient about wound care at the end before discharging her. Performing the procedures I missed in

While virtually everyone has heard of Hospice care, far fewer people fully understand exactly what hospice does. Of course, a big part of the Hospice mission involves easing the passing of terminally ill people who are facing impending death. For this reason, the general public often confuses a hospice referral with a death sentence.

I would recommend getting patient’s information as much as you can, such as from computer chart, physical chart, nurses who take of the patient for a longer period. Carefully observe the patient before interacting. Prepare what questions you are going to ask this patient. After interacting with the patient, compare the chart with patient’s statement to find out what is consistent or what is not consistent. Then set realistic goals for this patient.

Hospice and palliative care can be easily intertwined; they are both concerned with promoting comfort and relieving patient pain. Hospice and palliative care, however, are different in some aspects. Patients who receive hospice care are nearing the end of their lives and there is no effort to cure their disease; the goal is to provide pain relief, a sense of belonging from family and friends if desired, support through the dying stages, and to assure that the person is able to die with dignity. Palliative care is also focused on reducing discomfort; however, the patient receiving care can be at any stage in their disease. Additionally, palliative care can also be administered during a time when a patient is receiving treatment to cure their illness.

It brought to my awareness both the limitation and the capacity of medicine. Although there was no medical intervention that could cure the diseases of those terminal patients, their quality of life was improved  by an outstanding team of doctors, nurses and volunteers. This awareness helped reconcile myself to the fact that certain things, such as death and terminal illness, can not be avoided or changed. By viewing death as a natural part of life, I will be able to offer my dying patients the best care possible while also understanding my limitation as a physician and a human being.

According to Julia Wood (2004), “communication is a systemic process in which individuals interact with and through symbols to create and interpret meanings. However, Sheppard (1993) suggests that, in the nurse–patient relationship, communication involves more than the transmission of information; it also involves transmitting feelings, recognizing these feelings and letting the patient know that their feelings have been recognized (M, 1993)”. It is a two way process. The patient conveys their fears and concerns to their nurse and helps them make a correct nursing diagnosis. An excellent communication skill between nurses and patients is essential for the successful outcome of individualized nursing care of each patient. The ability to communicate

Being offered these services further highlights his declining health. This hospice clinical made me experience a variety of emotions. My first initial emotions were nervousness and awkwardness, I believe I felt this way because I have never been directly involved with hospice. The second wave of emotions consisted of sorrow and hopelessness. I felt these emotions because I couldn’t fathom being in their situation, but then I realized I cannot let these emotions affect the way I care for this patient and his family. The last of my emotions were compassion and motivation. I was motivated to be compassionate for the patient and his family. Upon entering the patient’s room I finally understood my place and part of how to care for this patient. This hospice clinical will affect me for years to come, it taught me how to show compassion even when I am scared for the patient. It taught me that just because my patient is dying, or is very much near death, doesn’t mean that they are unaware of their condition. I honestly feel that this hospice experience has made me a better person, and it will make me a better

The challenges that I am facing are learning how to report the first diagnosis and everything else that follows when coding. Some of the information is not worded in the the text you somehow just have to know by the information that is given. Since this information is new to me, the only thing I can think of that will help me to overcome this challenge is to practice and read the information carefully even if I have to read it 2 or more times to myself to make sure I am reading it correctly. More importantly asking Ms. Pavey when I don 't understand something.

This autumn I will be participating in a service learning project through UA Little Rock’s School of Social Work. In order to accomplish this goal, I will be volunteering a minimum of twenty hours at Kindred Hospice. As part of my SLE, this document will provide basic information about my chosen agency, the role of the social worker at the agency and, it will serve to clarify my top learning objectives during this project.

Terminally ill patients lose control over so many aspects of their lives, in many ways physician-assisted death gives them back some of the control they lost. Illness is not discriminatory. Therefore, people of all ages and backgrounds are diagnosed with things like cancer, kidney failure, and heart disease every day. Also, for anyone who is unfortunate enough to be diagnosed with any terminal illness, it can feel like their disease controls every aspect of their lives and they have no choice in the matter. Authors for the Journal of the American Society on Aging Lee Combs and Grube describe how persistent pain took control of a young woman named Brittany Maynard’s life, “Even after undergoing a sophisticated surgery and numerous cancer treatments,

Day two clinicals. This day went so much smoother. I had the same two patient as the day before and one got discharged and I got a new patient. I feel like my second day I had an amazing relationship with my one patient. I got her to eat a little more that day because I knew what to talk to her about. When people are happier they tend to eat more than being depressed. She really enjoyed my company. Since she had a stage 4 pressure ulcer, they got an air mattress bed. We had to move her out of her old bed onto this new bed. In which I was worried about because she was bed bound. We had more than enough people to help me accomplish this. I had about seven people help with this process. I am very grateful for all the help I receive for this. I got to help you mess with the

The interview went well, my first impression of her was she is very sweet and kind. She did seem to have a little trouble understanding some questions that were asked. Therefore, I had to switch my way of communicating those questions for her.

It is very important to provide feedback to the learners now and then during their learning process. Swann (2002) states that a good clinical instructor is the one who demonstrates an ability to provide feedback to the learners related to their skill performance and behaviors. Various roles of the clinical instructor should be multifaceted and include various responsibilities such as facilitating, supervising, coaching, guiding, consulting, teaching, evaluating, counseling, advising, career planning, role modeling, mentoring, and socializing (Jensen & Mostrom, 2013). Providing frequent feedback to students during their clinical practice by the clinical instructor is more recognized as an important part of undergraduate and graduate health sciences