Reflective Essay on Personal Experiences in Palliative Care

This reflective essay delves into the multifaceted aspects of palliative care, examining the importance of patient interaction, emotional support, and cultural sensitivity. The essay highlights the significance of effective communication strategies to understand and address patient needs, including symptom management and the provision of spiritual and cultural support. The author emphasizes the need to create a safe and comfortable environment for patients, discussing personal experiences and strategies for building trust and fostering open communication with both patients and their families. The essay covers various approaches to palliative care, including personalized treatment plans, family involvement, and the use of translators to ensure effective communication. The author stresses the importance of addressing the emotional and psychological challenges faced by palliative care patients, advocating for a holistic approach that considers the patient's overall well-being and quality of life.

Reflective Essay

TABLE OF CONTENTS
BODY OF THE ESSAY.............................................................................................................1
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................4

BODY OF THE ESSAY
Palliative care is considered as a specialised form of care that is being provided to the
people dealing with some serious issues or illness (Arnold, Cardoso and Subject, 2017). So, by
means of palliative care, the one dealing from the issue can get some sort of relief from the
symptoms of the factors leading to the illness. The actual forte of providing a wide range of
palliative care is to make some improvements in the quality of life of the person so that they can
also lead to a happier and healthier life.
Although it is quite hard to manage the personal well being along with these changes
which leads to some further complications or issues, but there are some ways that can be
included in order to get the best possible and suitable options. I think there are enormous number
of ways that can be involved but it should be in a way that it can help in making improvements in
the interaction process as well because I think it is very important to interact with the patients
because by these means, they also feel open and comfortable enough to discuss their ideas as
well as issues with me. It will further help me in providing the person a better set of care and
treatment that can help the person to get a sort of relief from the symptoms of the illness factor.
While managing the personal chores and beliefs, it is easy to provide the best suitable and
possible care to the person, but one needs to do a proper management (Pratt and Wood, 2015). I
think the people at a palliative stage needs to be dealt with proper care and support because it is
obvious that they got through various emotional and physical symptoms at this time.
It is obvious for those people to face loneliness, tiredness, depression etc. at this time. So,
I believe rather than going harsh with them to take proper medications, dealing with love is the
best possible option because any sort of harsh or rude behaviour with them can have an impact
on their mental stability (Wiener, Weaver and Sansom-Daly, 2015). These people already
experience sadness and depression because of no reason. So, all they need is proper love, care
and support. As the people with Palliative symptoms experience enormous number of symptoms,
so I have decided some simple ways to deal with them. Every single day, I sit with them and
have a conversation . I don't focus on the negative factors as it can hurt them to a huge extent.
So, I make a basic conversation with them and discuss about my experiences with them so that
they can also feel open enough with me. After a few days, I try to analyse that what is the actual
issue that is bothering them. For understanding this, I have a conversation with them about their
personal life such as their families, friends, relationships etc. I have to do this so that I can
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understand whether everything in their personal life is going good or not. Also, at the time of
having conversations with them, I make sure there is no sort of interruption or any other
disturbing factor such as any extra noise etc. It is because such factors can actually act as an
interference, thus can disrupt the flow of the conversation.
People at a palliative stage also deals with a huge rate of depression. I have observed this
in various factors that they lack interest in everything. Whether it is about roaming, going
shopping etc., they feel depressed enough that they do not show any sort of interest in any new
factor. So, for resolving this issue, I make sure to make their involvement in such factors so that
it can help in re gaining their interests in the specific factors. Also, making them involved in
various activities and processes help in improving their confidence levels as well because when
they will start dealing with people, interacting with them etc., then it can actually help in
maximizing their confidence levels to a huge extent. I prefer spending a good amount of time
with them because it also helps them in opening up and sharing their own ideas and feelings as
well. Sharing the ideas can actually help in reducing the rate of pressure and depression and that
can act as a beneficial factor for helping them in maintaining a balance between different factors
and don't let such negative factors to have influence on their lives.
Also, I believe providing an efficient amount of spiritual and cultural needs is important
for the people in a palliative phase because cultural safety is considered to be an effective way
that, I can make use of in order to make them feel safe enough. It may be some environment that
compiles the factors of their belief's as well as culture (Kelley and Morrison, 2015). So, think
providing them cultural and spiritual safety is a very important task, so, I make sure to keep this
as one of the priorities for dealing with the people of palliative stage. There is a wide range of
old people also dealing with palliative stages, so for managing these people, I make sure to
interact with their near ones such as family and friends because they can help me in analysing the
fact that what is important in their life and what are the factors by which they get affected. Also,
I have assigned a translator as well because there are some people with whom, I feel difficulty in
contacting in English but it is important to communicate with them so that we can share ideas
and thoughts with each others. So, for this issue, I have assigned a person translator that helps in
acting as a mediator between me and the person with whom I want to communicate.
Every person has a different reaction to pain. So, I make sure to discuss the whole
procedure which I am going to do with the patient. I ask the person whether they are comfortable
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in that or not. If they are afraid of some technique or surgery, I make sure to make involvement
of some other way that can help in making them comfortable as well. This is considered as
another way that can help the person to gain trust on me. So, for their comfort, I make sure to
discuss the treatment with them before the implementation so that during the procedure of
treatment, they may not feel awkward and stay confident that everything will go fine. Along with
this, I make sure to contact with the friends and family members of the person as well who is in
the palliative stage because I spend a few hours with them but they are with them for the rest of
the time, so they can even provide more care and support to these people. That is why, I made
their family members and friends understand the importance of providing an efficient amount of
care so that they can feel relieved enough from the symptoms of the specific illness.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Arnold, D., Cardoso, F. & Subject, E. M. I. D., (2017). ESMO Guidelines Committee. Annals
of Oncology. 28(4).
Kelley, A. S., & Morrison, R. S. (2015). Palliative care for the seriously ill. New England
Journal of Medicine. 373(8). 747-755.
Pratt, M., & Wood, M. (2015). Art therapy in palliative care: The creative response. Routledge.
van der Steen, J. T., Radbruch, L., & Koopmans, R. T. (2014). White paper defining optimal
palliative care in older people with dementia: a Delphi study and recommendations from
the European Association for Palliative Care. Palliative medicine. 28(3). 197-209.
Wiener, L., Weaver, M. S., & Sansom-Daly, U. M. (2015). Threading the cloak: palliative care
education for care providers of adolescents and young adults with cancer. Clinical
oncology in adolescents and young adults. 5. 1.
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