Personal Learner Record: Providing Compassionate Palliative Care, Assignment 2

Introduction (around 150 words)

Introduce your client and give their profile, illness, background, date of diagnosis, current status, prognosis, treatments received, family members’ involvement, is the family supportive? Is the client being looked after at home, in hospice, or in the hospital? When did you start working with the client? Communication with the members of the palliative care team, needs assessment, level of assistance required by the client with activities of daily living.

1. Palliative Care Philosophy and Principles (around 500 words)

What is palliative care? Discuss the principles of palliative care. What is the goal of palliative care, and explain that it uses a holistic approach to care for the individual and their family. You can use Dame Cicely Saunders’ ideology as well and explain total pain.

Demonstrate how you applied this in practice while looking after your client. Assisting with personal care, meals, pressure relief care, observing and dealing with common symptoms in palliative care (pain management, breathlessness, altered consciousness, oral care, swallowing difficulties, nausea, diarrhea, and constipation).

2. Summarize Palliative Care Services and the Role of the Multi-disciplinary Team (around 500 words)

Describe the structure of the palliative care services. Who is part of the multidisciplinary team of your client? Has the team grown over time? What is the role of each of those members of the team in relation to your client’s care and support of their family? Include family and client.

Demonstrate how you applied this in practice while looking after your client. Show that continuity of care is also achieved by recording and reporting to the MDT.

3. Role of the Support Worker (around 500 words)

Discuss the role of a support worker in promoting key issues such as life quality, self-esteem, respect, privacy, and dignity in palliative care work. Provide real-life examples or scenarios.

How do you assist your client in promoting these key issues? Demonstrate how you applied this in practice while looking after your client. Observational skills, reporting skills, and management of symptoms.

4. Attitudes to Death and Dying (around 500 words)

Explore different attitudes to death and dying, including an understanding of individual patterns of grief, bereavement, and loss. Reflect on the psychological and emotional aspects of palliative care. Include the Kubler-Ross model to analyze your client’s grief and their family’s grief. Include attitudes to death, bereavement, and loss.

How do you assist your client and their family with their grief? Show awareness of how people can be at different grief stages.

Does your client have an advanced care directive? What are your client’s wishes? Does your client have a DNR in place?

5. Communication Strategies (around 500 words)

What is communication, and how can you ensure it’s effective? What communication strategies can be used? Are there any communication aids? Did you use verbal and non-verbal methods? What are those methods? What tools did you use to assess pain? Show that you have a deep understanding of the importance of communication in palliative care. Communication with clients, the multidisciplinary team, and family. Show what strategies you used with your client to ensure effective communication. Talk about the importance of silence and touch.

6. Responding to the Needs of a Confused Person (around 500 words)

Explain how to respond appropriately to the needs of a person who is confused in the last days of life. Share insights into providing compassionate care in challenging situations. Include how you validate your client’s feelings. How did you show compassion and empathy in the care of the client and family? Explain what altered consciousness is and what to do when that happens.

7. Sensitivity in Palliative Care (around 500 words)

Share experiences and insights on working effectively and with great sensitivity in relation to the dying person and their significant others in a palliative care setting.

Write about how you can show sensitivity in dealing with the client and family.

Conclusion (around 150 words)

Use Gibbs’ reflective model:

1. Description – What happened?
2. Feelings – What were you thinking and feeling?
3. Evaluation – What was good and bad about the experience? What went well and what went badly?
4. Analysis – What sense can you make of the situation?
5. Conclusion – What else could you have done?
6. Action plan – If it arose again, what would you do?