Gourt > Health > Nursing > Specialties > Palliative Care (1)
Palliative care (from Latin palliare, to cloak) is any form of medical care or treatment that concentrates on reducing the severity of the symptoms of a disease or slows its progress rather than providing a cure. It aims at improving quality of life, by reducing or eliminating pain and other physical symptoms, enabling the patient to ease or resolve psychological and spiritual problems, and supporting the partner and family.
The concept of palliative care
The World Health Organisation (WHO), in a 1990 report on the topic, defined palliative care as "the active total care of patients whose disease is not responsive to curative treatment". This definition stresses the terminal nature of the disease. However, the term can also be used more generally to refer to anything that alleviates symptoms, even if there is also hope of a cure by other means; thus, a more recent WHO statement calls palliative care "an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problems associated with life-threatening illness." In some cases, palliative treatments may be used to alleviate the side effects of curative treatments, such as relieving the nausea associated with chemotherapy.
The term is not generally used with regard to a chronic disease such as diabetes which, although currently incurable, has treatments that are (ideally) effective enough that it is not considered a progressive or life-threatening disease in the same sense as cancer or progressive neurological conditions. It is, however, occasionally used with regard to some diseases, such as chronic, progressive pulmonary disorders and end stage renal disease or chronic heart failure.
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Palliative Care
Sense of Pain : nociception
Book To Help Nursing Students Authored By Rutgers College Of Nursing Professor
Wed, 27 Aug 2008 01:00:00 -0700
Robert Atkins, a Rutgers College of Nursing faculty member, has authored a book to help nursing students make the most of their learning opportunities in nursing school. "Getting the Most from Nursing School: A Guide to Becoming a Nurse," presents recommendations from nursing faculty and nurses who have decades of experience that will help students become more successful in nursing school.
21 Hospitals Across The Rocky Mountain States Come Together To Focus On Improving Clinical Quality And Patient Safety
Wed, 27 Aug 2008 01:00:00 -0700
Twenty-one hospitals across six states have come together to focus on improving clinical quality and patient safety by eliminating barriers to nurses spending more time in direct patient care. A VHA survey showed that many nurses spend less than 30 percent of their time in direct contact with patients. Studies indicate that increasing nursing involvement in direct patient care improves the quality and safety of the care that is delivered.
Preterm Birth Risk Linked To Diversity Of Microbes In Amniotic Fluid
Tue, 26 Aug 2008 11:00:00 -0700
US researchers have discovered a significant link between the number and range of bacteria or fungi in a mother's amniotic fluid and the degree to which her baby is born premature and sick. Scientists at Stanford University Medical School in California, and colleagues from other establishments, published their findings in the 26th August issue of the open access online journal PLoS One.
Journal of Research in Nursing current issue
Nursing research and the cults of phenomenology
Porter, S. Mon, 07 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0000
Commentary
le May, A. Mon, 07 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0000
On the constitution and status of 'evidence' in the health sciences
Murray, S. J, Holmes, D., Rail, G. Mon, 07 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0000
AbstractDrawing on the philosophy of Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze, this paper interrogates the constitution of ‘evidence' that defines the evidence-based movement in the health sciences. What are the current social and political conditions under which scientific knowledge appears to be ‘true'? Foucault describes these conditions as state ‘science', a regime that privileges economic modes of governance and efficiency. Today, the Cochrane taxonomy and research database is increasingly endorsed by government and public health policy makers. Although this ‘evidence-based' paradigm ostensibly promotes the noble ideal of ‘true knowledge' free from political bias, in reality, this apparent neutrality is dangerous because it masks the methods by which power silently operates to inscribe rigid norms and to ensure political dominance. Through the practice of critique, this paper begins to expose and to politicise the workings of this power, ultimately suggesting that scholars are in a privileged position to oppose such regimes and foremost have the duty to politicise what hides behind the distortion and misrepresentation of ‘evidence'.
Evidence-Based Nursing current issue
[Purpose and procedure] Purpose and procedure
Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0000
[EBN notebook] Economic evaluation of healthcare technologies using primary research
Soares, M., Dumville, J. C Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0000
[Treatment] Review: venepuncture is less painful than heel lance for blood sampling in neonates
Mainous, R. Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0000
Research in Nursing & Health
Life course theory as a framework to examine becoming a mother of a medically fragile preterm infant
Beth Perry Black, Diane Holditch-Davis, Margaret S. Miles Fri, 22 Aug 2008 12:55:00 -0000
Life course theory, a sociological framework, was used to analyze the phenomenon of becoming a mother, with longitudinal narrative data from 34 women who gave birth prematurely after a high-risk pregnancy, and whose infant became medically fragile. Women faced challenges of mistimed birth and mothering a technologically dependent infant. Before social ties were established, legal and biological ties required mothers to make critical decisions about their infants. Liminality characterized mothers' early involvement with their infants. The mothers worked to know, love, and establish deeper attachments to this baby. The infant's homecoming was a key turning point; it decreased liminality of early mothering, increased mothers' control of infants' care, and gave them time and place to know their infants more intimately. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Res Nurs Health
Erratum re: Community cardiopulmonary resuscitation training in Greece. Res Nurs Health, 31, 165-171 (2008)
Fri, 08 Aug 2008 09:27:00 -0000
No Abstract.
Reliability and validity of the Sexual Pressure Scale for Women-Revised
Rachel Jones, Elsie Gulick Tue, 29 Jul 2008 14:20:00 -0000
Sexual pressure among young urban women represents adherence to gender stereotypical expectations to engage in sex. Revision of the original five-factor Sexual Pressure Scale was undertaken in two studies to improve reliabilities in two of the five factors. In Study 1 the reliability of the Sexual Pressure Scale for Women-Revised (SPSW-R) was tested, and principal components analysis was performed in a sample of 325 young, urban women. A parsimonious 18-item, four-factor model explained 61% of the variance. In Study 2 the theory underlying sexual pressure was supported by confirmatory factor analysis using structural equation modeling in a sample of 181 women. Reliabilities of the SPSW-R total and subscales were very satisfactory, suggesting it may be used in intervention research. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Res. Nurs. Health
Growth House - Resources for bereavement and grief, death and dying, death with dignity, euthanasia, hospice, palliative care, suicide, terminal illness, AIDS, HIV, and related topics.
Meta Description: [ The Internet's leading portal for information about end-of-life care. Resources for death and dying, hospice and palliative care, grief, and related topics. ]
Children's Hospice International - Provides a network of support and care for children with life-threatening conditions and their families. Membership information, publications, guidelines for how to tell children and discussion board.
Meta Description: [ Ensuring medical, psychological, social, spiritual support to all children with life-threatening conditions and their families from the time of diagnosis by providing a network of resources and care. ]
Crossing the Creek - A practical guide to dying process for the dying and caregivers, written by a nurse. Explains normal changes, interventions and the work of dying.
Meta Description: [ A practical guide to understanding death and the dying process. ]
Hospice Care Ring - A place for hospice workers, caregivers, and people who know first hand about grief and healing to come together to share ideas, and help each other.
Meta Description: [ HospiceRing includes websites that pertain to compassionate care for the dying and bereaved. Sites included may offer information to patients, caregivers, those who are grieving a loss, volunteers, or ]
Symptoms in Terminal Illness - Transcript from a research workshop which offers articles, definitions and issues at the end of life.
Tennessee End of Life Partnership - A nonprofit organization, aiming at continually defining and promoting optimum practices in end of life care. Offers membership information, updates and related links.
| of money should come from the government. Children's hospices provide essential respite and palliative care for thousands ... | |
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