The role of nurses in palliative care

Introduction

Since the beginning of the profession, nurses have cared for the person in all stages of life, from birth to death. Care has been offered on the basis of knowledge of the time, and many times intuitively and without scientific basis. With the passage of the years, this situation has changed, and the nurses have been changing care based on experiences, scientific knowledge and human relations. Taking into account that the nurse is the Member of the health team closest to the individual and family, especially in stage of disease, you should also assume the necessary care at the end of life, phase in which the care model is transformed into what we called today Palliative Care.

Palliative Care

According to World Health Organization “Palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problem associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial and spiritual.” Cicely Saunders and Elisabet Kubler-Ross, in the 1960s, established the modern principles of what we know today as palliative care: the care dispensed to patients already in terminal stage that cannot be cured, and their goals are comfort and quality of life, the patient and not the disease, is the real protagonist to be (Berry, 2010). In addition, the therapeutic goal is his family; the situation of advanced disease causes intense stress, and they are in high stage of adjustment of both the patient and the family unit, as the daily lives of all those affected are altered. Family and/or social environment is increasingly an important pillar in the comprehensive care of the patient, to the point where without their active participation is difficult to achieve all the objectives. On the other hand, is not possible to respond to problems arising during the process without the multidisciplinary teamwork: doctors, nurses, social workers, auxiliary, volunteering, spiritual assistants, etc. The assumption of palliative care entails a greater personal involvement and adequate and training specific not only in the area of the techniques, but also in areas such as the science of behavior, to get some quality care and avoid the professional wear.

The Nurses Role in Palliative Care

Nurse occupies a privileged place within this process since it is who remains the greater amount of time next to the patient, this allows them to clearly exercise the role of caregiver, and is why they must be able to accept and understand that patients will not be cured, which involves changing the healing attitude toward to palliative attitude. “Palliative Nursing embraces and reflects a holistic philosophy of care provided to patients with serious or life-threatening illness in diverse health settings, across the life span” (Dahlin,

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