It’s not easy to see someone you love ill and unable to take care of themselves. When you find a loved one’s health is declining, you may turn to palliative care at home. Keeping the individual in a place they recognize will be easier on them and their families. If you’re not sure what to expect from palliative care at home, keep on reading.  Undivided Attention  By choosing palliative care at home, you’re providing the individual with undivided attention and one-on-one time. In a nursing home, hospital or long-term care facility, the nurses and personal support workers are there to…

There can come a time in your life when you need to make a difficult decision, whether to send an ill loved one to palliative care or hospice care. Both can bring comfort and relief, but they have some important differences. Learn everything you need to know here to help you make the best decision for your loved one. Palliative Care Palliative care has one goal and that’s to give those with a serious illness a better quality of life. It provides treatment to those with cancer, dementia, chronic disease, and other illnesses to allow for a more comfortable experience.…

There may come a time in your life when you need to consider palliative care for yourself or a loved one. But what does palliative care mean exactly? This is a form of medical care that’s dedicated to those who are facing serious and terminal illness. The main purpose of this care is to help relieve the symptoms, discomfort and pain associated with their condition and make the patients as comfortable as possible during this difficult stage. If you or a loved one is preparing for palliative care, find out what it means for you and your family and what you can do to get the best care possible. When Is Palliative Care Used? Patients enter palliative care when they are suffering from serious illness or are terminally ill and no longer require treatment.  The objective is to help improve the patient’s life during their final stages, but it can…

It’s interesting that the birth of life is filled with advanced planning and preparation while, unfortunately, the end of life is consumed with reminding people that you have lived. But while it is natural to be afraid, we do not have to be alone. Increasingly, nurses are training in Palliative Care so that proper preparation for our loved one’s survival can be well assisted. It’s Recommended by the AACN The American Association of Colleges of Nursing released the revised Recommendations, Competencies and Curricular Guidelines for End-of-Life Nursing Care of 2015, which identifies nurses as critical partners of quality End of Life care for patients with serious illnesses and their families from the time of diagnosis, across the illness trajectory. High-quality training equips nurses to aid in the mental and emotional stress for the patient and their family. This training is a combination of spiritual-psychosocial health and physical health to assist…

When people think of palliative care, they also tend to think of terminal illness. As you will see, this is actually one of the many myths that currently surrounds palliative care. Unfortunately, these devastating myths go on to prevent many people from benefiting from them. Palliative Care Is Only for Those at the End of Their LivesIn fact, palliative care actually not only seeks to improve the quality of a person’s life at a variety of different stages of their life and/or illness, but also takes a holistic approach in doing so. This means that palliative care seeks to offer not only physical care such as pain management, but also psychological, social and spiritual care. Even those who are not necessarily at the end of their lives, such as those with illnesses that may shorten life, can benefit from this holistic approach. Palliative Care Doesn’t Give Patients Hope for the…