Is palliative care the same as end-of-life care?
Who provides palliative care?
The basic level (level 1), refers to a palliative approach to care provision, which is the care that should be provided to patients with life-limiting and life-threatening illness across all settings and by all generalist healthcare professionals, who have a basic working knowledge of palliative care.
How are the relatives of the person whose end-of-life is near, included in palliative care?
Therefore, palliative clinicians utilise effective
communication to prepare the family members for their care-giving role and also
assess and address their needs on both a practical and psychosocial level. It
is relevant to note that palliative care provision goes beyond a patient's
death and bereavement support services are available for the family/loved ones.
Given that we’re an ageing population, should there or is there a national palliative care strategy?
In February 2023, the government published a consultation
document entitled ‘National Palliative Care Strategy for Malta 2023 - 2024' and
therefore, it would be safe to say that the launch of a National Strategy is
imminent. I hope that this will serve to address numerous issues that have been
identified in this interview, which impact the accessibility to palliative care
for all, including the elderly population.
When studying for their degrees, are doctors are nurses taught about palliative care at all?
(Please note that I am mainly involved in palliative education for nurses and therefore, it is probable that there are educational initiatives currently on offer to other disciplines, of which I am not aware).
Ethically speaking, should nurses and doctors be working to improve the accessibility of the service?
Ensuring accessibility to and provision of equitable palliative care services across the diverse settings is something that all healthcare professionals should strive for but in all fairness, they are not solely responsible for this.
We also need to keep in mind that service accessibility is
hampered by the public's negative perceptions and misconceptions of palliative
care and therefore, strategies to create a public awareness of the true nature
of palliative care and its benefits, are warranted.
So, what are the benefits of palliative care?
Furthermore, it might be relevant to point out that whilst palliative care improves quality of life it does not shorten a patient's survival and although prolonged survival is not a palliative goal, there is some evidence to suggest that early integration of palliative care could result in prolonged survival in the short term.
The seminar on palliative care in the critical care setting is taking place on Friday 12 April 2024, between 13:00 and 16:00. More information is available online.