Palliative Care Approach: Case Study

Running head: PALLIATIVE CARE APPROACH
PALLIATIVE CARE APPROACH: CASE STUDY
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1PALLIATIVE CARE APPROACH
Introduction
The aim of the project is to critically analyse the case study of Mrs Brown who is
suffering from the serious illness which is known as COPD. The essay intends to focus on
palliative care the need to be administered for wellness of the Mrs Brown. Further, the essay is
highlighted with two most important strategies opted by the community nurse to assist the patient
with COPD. Palliative approach deals with giving effective care and help the patient with
progressive sickness or to those who are end of their life (Grubbs et al., 2014). The care given
generally include psychological support to the person and their families to cope with the disease
and manage it efficiently (Holloway at al., 2014). Additionally, the palliative approach also
involves to provide scientific knowledge regarding the disease of the patient and concept of
death and dying. Furthermore, it also focusses on to relieve the pain and stress of the patient
(Barnett, Williams & Tucker, 2016).
Evidence based nursing strategies to manage the illness of Mrs Brown
Nurses and health care professional are the one who effectively take part in care of
patients. They give different type of care to patient according to the patient situation which also
include palliative care approach that deals with lethal diseases. However, some nurse faces
problem to deal with the family of patient and with patient itself, as because it requires
confidence to communicate with them. Mrs Brown is old lady of 62 years of age who has huge
responsibility for his family. she was having issue in breathing in past, but with time her
condition deteriorated, due to which she was hospitalized three time and got identified with
COPD illness. Her health falls drastically, where she consulted with her general practitioner
about her illness and problem. General practitioner advised her to take palliative care by the

2PALLIATIVE CARE APPROACH
community nurse as she was also having history of depression and anxiety. The current situation
of Mrs Brown left her with intense coughing and breathlessness. Hence, she requires palliative
care through which she will be assisted both physically and psychologically (Kelley & Morrison,
2015).
In order to deal with the problem of Mrs Brown, palliative care approach is employed
holistically to help her which involves physical, psychological and emotional care and support.
Research say that patient who have COPD need to be treated on basis of physical symptoms and
mental behaviour (Miravitlles et al., 2017). Moreover, in palliative care nurse emphasis on
enlightening the quality of life of patient and their family (Ageing, 2018). The situation of Mrs
Brown demands palliative care, as because her health is deteriorating day by day, and nurse need
to focus on her current situation try best to assist her.
It is evident from the case study that she her role is being badly affected by because of
COPD, continuous breathlessness and depression. To manage the symptoms of COPD like
breathless, nurse analyse the current situation that she had also had anxiety attack suffers from
depression. Palliative approach provided to her completely depends on assessing her symptoms
and every day situation. Therefore, after analysing her environment, nurse can plan a proper
palliative approach of care that can improve her health condition.
The first nursing strategy that need to be employed is to manage the issue of
breathlessness and cough by administration of proper medication and therapy in consultation
with the general practitioner. Firstly, effective communication with Mrs Brown about her
situation will provide an insight about her health. Nurse need to make a record of it for proper
evaluation. Nurse communicate with her about the treatment will be given to her and the future
outcome of it. Nurse explained about the end-life theory to Mrs Brown that will make her