Palliative Care: Nursing Strategies for Shortness of Breath and Social Isolation

Running head: PALLIATIVE CARE
Topic: PALLIATIVE CARE
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

1PALLIATIVE CARE
Introduction
Palliation focuses on the physical care, pain, mental stress at any stage of the ailment.
Palliative care is important for the effective treatment of people during the last years of their
life. Studies based on the effect of palliative care on patients have found that effective care
and support enhances the coping abilities of patients and the quality of life. Exact palliative
care ensures an escalated quality of life for patients including emotional and psychological
well-being of patients. This essay would deal with interventions in the case study and revolve
around their effectiveness in provision of care and comfort.
Nursing priorities for palliative care
a) Strategies for her shortness of breath
The first nursing priority would be assistance in shortness of breaths for Chronic
Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder (COPD).
For effective care and treatment a respiratory nurse would be required. The primary
requirement of the respiratory nurse would be to implement and plan treatments for the
patients suffering from respiratory illness. The nurse should also help the patient in
prevention of the respiratory problems which develop or worsen in absence of strict
monitoring (Vahedian- Azimi et al., 2015). Various roles of the nurse include assistance with
the respiratory care performing diagnostic testing to know an idea about the stages of the
disorder Mrs Mary has been suffering from. Moreover the nurse would interview the patient
based on the symptoms and the previous diagnoses. Moreover, helping the patients with
various respiratory issues is another function along with management of the medications,
breathing treatments and the airways. This is important for the proper design of assessment
based on the dose and the effects of the medications of the patient. Furthermore, assistance is

2PALLIATIVE CARE
required in the administration of oxygen therapy. The nurse should also expertise in her skills
of spreading awareness and educating the families and the patients for maintenance of
respiratory health, utilisation of regular exercise and regimens so that apart from an patient
centred care she receives a proper family centred care as well. It would also involve
collaboration along with healthcare professionals inclusive of therapists as well as physician.
Thus an effective multidisciplinary team would be required for provision of the exact
requirements for escalation of Mrs Brown’s health. The nurse could also help in
establishment of a proper therapeutic relationship with her patient for approaching a holistic
care approach (Flascas, 2018).
According to Philip et al (2018), action researches done for addressing palliative care
needs of patients suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disorders have found that a
proper inter-level dynamics at team, individual as well as organisational levels. Thus these
act as important factors for measuring the capacity of the nurses for embedding non specialist
palliative care in their practice.
Referring to the case study, it can be seen that Mrs, Brown who is a 62 year old lady
and has difficulty in breathing. One of the major problems is her shortness of breath. After
consultation with her general practitioner, she has shown exacerbations of COPD. Thus
shortness of breath has been accompanied by rhinorrhoea for several days. These symptoms
require effective nursing strategies for her fast recovery. The identified heath issue in this
case study for Mrs Brown is shortness of breath (Dumas et al., 2015).
Thus from the following paragraphs it can be understood that proper nursing
strategies are required for assessment of Mrs Brown’s shortness of breaths. Moreover, help of
a respiratory nurse is required along with proper support from multidisciplinary team which
would be effective in provision of an effective plan of care and support.