| Most people are
familiar with issues in cancer care. However, not many of us are
familiar with issues in palliative care.
You will be surprised that there are many challenging issues
surrounding patients with terminal or life threatening illness and
their families. These issues are fundamental to the provision of
optimal palliative care by professional and lay carers.
These issues originate from the social,
economical, cultural, political and legal milieu in which we live
and work as well as from our personal values and purpose in life.
It is therefore essential to acquire the basic knowledge to enable
you to know how to analyze the issues about the understanding of
loss and grief through the frameworks of ethics, law and cultural
awareness and the basis of terminal care for patients and families
through the philosophy, principles and practice of palliative care
medicine.
In short palliative medicine attempts to
answer the following questions.
1. Palliative medicine rely on certain
philosophies that are very effective to look after patients
with life threatening illness.
2. Palliative medicine analyzes the
therapeutic relationship in palliative care and the need to
respond to the psychosocial and spiritual needs of the patient and
the family.
3. Palliative medicine understands the
psychological and psychiatric impact as a result of change, loss
and grief from personal, professional and social perspectives.
4. Palliative medicine has the expertise
to discuss in depth the meaning of dying, death, grieving and
bereavement within a variety of cultural and religious frameworks.
5. Palliative medicine effectively uses
teamwork to analyze personal, professional and cultural issues to
enhance optimal team functioning.
6. Palliative medicine critically examine
questions relating to ethical decision making.
7. Palliative medicine examine the legal
issues regarding palliative and cancer care.
Palliative medicine as a movement has
achieved remarkable success throughout the world over the years.
If you have questions related to this article you may e-mail me
at doctor@soontongkiong.com quoting the contents of the article.
About the author
DR SOON is a medical practitioner. He holds four degrees. MBBS
(University of Malaya), MBA (University of East Asia), LLB (Hons)
(University of Wolverhampton), Master of Medicine (Edith Cowan
University
:
Dr SOON is the owner of AskMyVisitor.com and MyScriptDoctor.com
where you can find the most up-to-date advice and information
on
many medical, health and lifestyle topics. |
