Advanced Concepts in Palliative Care

Assignment on advanced concept of Palliative care nursing

Learning outcome 1: Critically analyse influences that have an effect on palliative care, and the strategies employed by the practitioner in the delivery of quality palliative care.

Learning outcome 2: Critically discuss a variety of physical, psychological, spiritual and social factors which impact on the client's experience in relation to palliative care.

Detailed guidance
The assignment will be based on a case study of a patient undergoing palliative and end of life care, identifying and discussing effective holistic patient care and how this may influence the experiences of all concerned within the palliative care situation.Managing symptoms such as pain, breathlessness, nausea and agitation, supporting patients and their significant others and utilising one's own and others' expertise to the benefit of the patient are all important aspects of the role of the palliative care practitioner.

A case study is written for a clear purpose and to a particular audience. Specific information and evidence are presented, analysed and applied. Reports are presented in a clearly structured format making use of sections and headings so that the information is easy to locate and follow. Case studies are used as forms of written assessment to identify what you have learned from your reading, research and experience and giving you an experience of a skill that is used in practice and research (e.g., incident, development, progress and scientific reports). Case writing skills may be increasingly useful as your career progresses.

Case studies allow episodes of care to inform the delivery of high-quality healthcare. Furthermore, a case study discussespractice, research or educational purposes. Case studies written without structure are insufficiently rigorous to guide clinical practice and research needs.

o Therefore, what is presented in the discussion needs to be related to the patientand must critically discuss a variety of physical, psychological, spiritual and social factors.
o What is presented needs to be explicitly related to palliative care (see book "Case studies in palliative and end-of-life care" for examples).

Case
The case can be a :
• Patient currently or previously encountered, or confidentiality discussed by you or other professionals.
• Simulated case, accommodating palliative care issues you would like to put forward and discuss
Cannot be from:
• The course/work of others.
• Journals.
• The internet.
• Books.
• Published sources.
• Similar sources to the above.
Confidentiality needs to be maintained including the explicit use of pseudonyms and, as appropriate, removal or modification of personal identifiers.

Therefore, what is relevant from the following should be considered:
History: relevant key background information including explaining the palliative care situation.
Physical examination: relevant signs, symptoms, vital signs, observations, physical examination findings.
Diagnostics: relevant laboratory test, imaging, survey results.
Clinical question/s: question/s related to what the assignment will analyse. Only one or two questions.
Patient discussion: discussion related to the clinical question/s (one or two clinical questions are advised) and relevant literature. Arguments with rationale with inferences explained. You can think about your recommendations as this will help you make discussions in relation to these here.
Follow-up: relevant changes to care (if any) with rationale, recommendations for practice and research going forward considering ‘Patient discussion', strengths and limitations of the assignment.