Introduction
Through the journey of life comes illness, pains, disappointments, conflicts between people, stress, and many more related life afflictions. Not all these factors may come on their own. Some may be due to certain diseases, which can be chronic and incurable, but need to be handled to prolong life and reduce suffering before leading to inevitable end of life. Uhomhoabhi and Kogwuonye (2020) have written a guidebook for nursing skills implementation, to help the patient with chronic illness, and to reduce suffering, improve quality of life and provide support for patient’s family members.
Applying palliative nursing skills
As the journey of life continues there comes a time when one can no longer cope independently. This affliction and inability to cope devoid of assistance can be due to critical ailment, which is commonly accompanied by pains, such as physical pain, spiritual pain, and psychosocial pain et cetera. Nurses need to apply palliative care skills, presented in the by Uhomhoabhi & Kogwuonye (2020), such as communication, pain management, psychosocial and coordination skills to help the patient. Nurses need coordinating skills, encompassing communication with all persons involved in the care and networking with other professionals and between the patient and the family.
Multi-professional Coordination
The palliative care team comprises different professional disciplines whose role is to provide high quality care to a patient. The nursing students are part of the team. Palliative care nurses deem it essential to talk with each of the family members individually and coordinate activities effectively with the multi-professional team. Nursing skills in communication are very critical, and the process and methodology used by nurses should be goal-oriented to win the client’s trust. The quality of care rendered to palliative care patient improves the patient’s life expectancy, and the patient can survive longer than expected (Cruz-Oliver 2017, 1-2). It is beneficial that a pain management specialist is involved in the decision-making and care process. The nurses should always be there for the patient and their family. The thesis and guidebook by Uhomhoabhi and Kogwuonye (2020) will benefit nurses working in the homecare setting, with palliative patients, as well as teachers and students at healthcare institutions. The guidebook contains the way of implementing palliative nursing skills, communicating with patient and family member, pain management skill implementation, psychosocial skills implementation, and co-ordination skills implementation.
Authors
Fredrick Uhomhoabhi and Ogochukwu Kogwuonye are students at LAB University of Applied Sciences bachelor’s degree Programme in Nursing students and the blog text focuses on their bachelor’s thesis work The required nursing skills for palliative care: A guide for implementing nursing skills.
Sari Lappalainen works as a senior lecturer at LAB University of Applied Sciences. Sari Lappalainen is the thesis supervisor.
References
Cruz-Oliver, D. M. 2017. Palliative Care: An Update. Missouri Medicine 114 (2): 110-115. [Cited 17 Nov 2020]. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6140030/
Uhomhoabhi, F. & Kogwuonye, O. 2020. The required nursing skills for palliative care: A guide for implementing nursing skills. Bachelor’s thesis. Lab University of Applied Sciences, Faculty of Health care and Social services Lahti. [Cited 24 Sep 2020]. Available at: http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2020091520458
Picture
Rawpixel. Nurse helping senior woman to stand. [Cited 24 Sep 2020]. Available at: https://www.rawpixel.com/image/427996/free-photo-image-elderly-nurse-caregiver
