End-of-life symptom management, advance directives, and hospice care team concepts for the bedside nurse.
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- What is palliative care?
- Care focused on relieving symptoms and improving quality of life for patients with serious illness, at any stage, alongside or instead of curative treatment.
- What is hospice care?
- End-of-life care focused on comfort rather than cure for patients with a terminal prognosis.
- Can a hospice patient continue curative treatment for their terminal illness?
- No, hospice requires forgoing curative treatment in favor of comfort-focused care.
- Medicare hospice eligibility requires a physician to certify a prognosis of ____ if the disease runs its usual course.
- 6 months or less
- What is the role of the hospice chaplain?
- Providing spiritual support to the patient and family, regardless of religious affiliation.
- What is the role of the hospice social worker?
- Addressing psychosocial needs and connecting the patient and family to practical and emotional resources.
- What is the role of a hospice volunteer?
- Providing companionship, respite for family caregivers, and non-medical support to the patient and family.
- What is the role of a bereavement counselor in hospice?
- Supporting the family's grief process before and after the patient's death.
- What is a living will?
- A written advance directive stating a person's wishes for medical treatment if they become unable to communicate.
- What is a durable power of attorney for healthcare?
- A legal document naming a person to make medical decisions for the patient if they become incapacitated.
- What does a DNR order mean?
- Do not attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation if the patient's heart or breathing stops.
- What is a POLST form?
- Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment, a portable medical order set that translates a patient's end-of-life wishes into actionable orders.
- What are the four dimensions of 'total pain' in hospice care?
- Physical, emotional, social, and spiritual pain.
- Why should chronic pain near the end of life be managed with around-the-clock dosing rather than PRN only?
- To maintain steady pain control and prevent pain from recurring before the next dose.
- How does opioid tolerance differ from opioid addiction?
- Tolerance is a physiologic need for higher doses to achieve the same effect; addiction is compulsive drug use despite harm.