Palliative Care: A Literature Review on Improving Quality of Life

This report explores the advantages of palliative care over traditional care models for terminally ill patients. It addresses the limitations of traditional methods in managing symptoms, spiritual, and emotional distress associated with terminal illnesses like HIV/AIDS, cancer, and liver disease. The research methodology involved searching databases like PubMed, CINHAL, and Cochrane for articles published between 2014 and 2018, focusing on the benefits of palliative care. Key findings indicate that early integration of palliative care improves symptoms, enhances the quality of life, and reduces depression and anxiety among patients. The report also emphasizes the importance of internal and external validity in research to ensure the soundness and generalizability of results. It concludes that palliative care offers a more effective approach to managing terminal illnesses compared to traditional methods.

Running head: PALLIATIVE CARE 1
Palliative Care
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

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Introduction
Terminal illness patients experience numerous symptoms, spiritual, and emotional
distress. Additionally, the life of the patients deteriorates in each passing day (Chang, & Chang,
2015). Terminal diseases are incurable conditions that lead to the death of the patient. Examples
of terminal ailments include HIV/AIDS, cancer, liver disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and
cardiomyopathy (Lam et al., 2018). A majority of caregivers have relied on traditional methods
of care which have proved unreliable in the terminally ill patients (Kirkpatrick, Cantrell, &
Smeltzer, 2017). However, recent research has demonstrated that palliative care is more effective
than traditional care model in caring for the patients (Kelley, & Morrison, 2015). The PICOT
question can assist to evaluate the strengths of palliative care over traditional treatment methods
(Triplett et al., 2017). The question is a population of patients with a terminal disease (P) and
Impact of early integration of palliative care (I). Comparison of traditional care with palliative
care (C), improving the quality of life (O) within six months (T). This paper will explore peer-
reviewed sources that support palliative care over the traditional model.
Description of Search Methodology
The content of this proposal is from different databases that enumerate the advantages of
palliative care over the traditional model. The databases contain adequate information on
healthcare; hence supporting the choice of the articles. The journal articles are from databases
such as PubMed, CINHAL, and ebscohost.com Cochrane. The research used articles published
between 2014 and 2018 from PubMed. Furthermore, the articles from the database focus on the
essence of end-of-life care. The investigation acquired adequate information on terminal illness
and the solution to the infections from the Cochrane database. The inclusive criteria involve
articles that have been published from 2014 and 2018 under the topic “advantages of palliative

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care over the traditional model." The proposal left out articles that do not meet the above criteria.
The keywords that investigators used include terminal illness, palliative care, and traditional care
model. Other research words are spiritual and emotional distress.
Summary of Research Studies
Recent research indicates that palliative care bridges the gap that exists in traditional
models of care by ensuring quality treatment (Davis, Temel, Balboni, & Glare, 2015). However,
the article discourages caregivers from late end-of-life care; since it is detrimental to hospitals,
family members, and the patients. The write-up further challenges the investigators to explore
the advantages of early end-of-life care on the patients (Davis et al., 2015). The research
confirms the essence of early intervention by conducting a methodological review of patients
under the home unit of palliative care and those at hospitals. However, positive reviews lacked
relevant information on the topic under study. The study indicates that palliative care improves
the symptoms of terminal illnesses like depression. The attention also enhances the quality of the
patient's life among other advantages.
A group of investigators researched to investigate the impacts of early end-of-life care on
cancer patients (Rohrmoser, Preisler, Bär, Letsch, & Goerling, 2017). The purpose of the study
was to prove the fact that early palliative care reduces depression and anxiety among patients.
The methodology of the research focused on nine caregivers from different disciplines in
Germany. The investigation concludes that structural improvement, tailored education, and
supervision help caregivers to implement palliative care. However, the weakness of the study is
that it lacks sufficient assertion of the doctors on the methods of intervention. The researchers
can solve the problem by considering the input of each caregiver.
Description of Internal and External Validity

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The validity of a research proposal is the effectiveness of the methodology and design of
the investigation (Evans et al., 2015). This proposal will achieve internal validity by determining
the soundness and accuracy of the study. The research will employ chi-square and t-tests to
establish the relationship of the variables that the paper has cited. Furthermore, the study will
apply SPSS to explore the research variables. The suggested solution will be deemed sufficient
and relevant if the variables have a relationship. External Validity confirms the authenticity of
the results by creating room for generalizability. The application of random sampling techniques
brings the aspect of generalization in the study.
Conclusion
Terminal illness causes profound symptoms, spiritual, and emotional distress to the
patients. Specific examples of the ailments include HIV/AIDS, cancer, and liver disease among
others. Caregivers have been applying the traditional model as opposed to palliative care to
manage the complications. The conventional methods have proven ineffective in caring for the
terminally-ill patients. This has made caregivers to explore the advantages of end-of-life care
over the traditional care model. Palliative care improves the symptoms of the diseases and the
quality of the patient's lives. Researchers should also consider the aspect of validity in their
research. Internal and external validity help to generate relevant and sound results.

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