Living Longer With Palliative Care

By Helen McNeal

Executive Director, California State University Shiley Institute for Palliative Care

It is estimated that 1.5 to 1.6 million patients in the United States received hospice or palliative care services in 2012. Anecdotal accounts indicate that many more who would benefit by this care did not have access to it or had to wait so long that services were provided only during their final few days of life.

Considering that 90 percent of American adults live with a chronic illness before they die, this is an important issue. While some manage well on their own with minimal assistance from healthcare professionals and/or friends and family, others may need more hands-on care and supervision, particularly as their disease burden becomes heavier. We cannot forget that as the population ages, more people with multiple illnesses or conditions will require more supportive care.

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Palliative Care Education – Critical for Nurses

By Caroline Boaz MSN, RN, ACNS-BC, ACHPN
Community Educator
California State University Shiley Institute for Palliative Care

The silver tsunami is here. What does it mean for nurses? How will the focus of your practice shift? Are you prepared? As our patients are living longer with serious and chronic illnesses, they are at increased risk of having their pain and complex symptoms under-treated. Our elders are facing long and expensive inpatient stays, treatments and surgeries that are likely futile and suffering through a prolonged dying process. This isn’t what patients and families want. Additionally, it’s this sort of care that can lead nurses and other health professionals to burnout and suffer with moral distress.

The solution lies in focusing on a plan of care that matches the patient’s preference and reflects the highest possible quality of life as defined by the patient and family. In order to provide evidence-based care in alignment with patient values and goals, we need well-trained professionals who can provide both generalist and specialist-level palliative care and function effectively as a part of an interdisciplinary team.

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Building Bridges, Building Connections Workshop

CONNECTIONS MADE – BRIDGES BUILT

The provocative question posed by the seasoned facilitators at the opening of the Building Bridges, Building Connections workshop quickly engaged the diverse audience. “What differences make a difference?” Not an easy question but a very important one to launch the discussion. Coalition for Compassionate Care of California’s Lavera Crawley, MD MPH and Theresa Drought PhD, RN helped the workshop participants focus on the importance of recognizing our cultural differences and own invisible biases as we explore new ways to communicate the importance of palliative care throughout and between our organizations.

Compassionate Connections

The primary objectives for the day were to build bridges and create cultural awareness while facilitating connections between professionals providing palliative care and community members in the culturally diverse communities that form San Diego, southern Orange and southwestern Riverside counties. When you bring palliative care professionals together from organizations such as Elizabeth Hospice, LightBridge Hospice and Palliative Care, Vista Community Clinic, Scripps Health, Pacific Island Health Partnership, Indian Health Services, and others, compassionate connections happen and growing begins.

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