Med Surg 1A: Home Care Nurse Visits Client With Stage 4 ✓ Solved
Med Surg 1.A Home Care Nurse Visits A Client Who Has Stage 4 Metastatic
Med Surg 1.A home care nurse visits a client who has stage 4 metastatic lung cancer. He tells the nurse, "I don't want any more chemotherapy or surgery. I just want to be made comfortable". How can the nurse advocate for this client?
A nurse can advocate effectively for this client by ensuring his wishes are respected and his comfort is prioritized. The nurse should facilitate a comprehensive discussion with the client, including the healthcare team, to confirm his goals and preferences for care. This involves advocating for palliative and comfort measures, such as pain management, emotional support, and symptom relief, in accordance with the client’s expressed desires. The nurse should also serve as the client's voice in care planning meetings, ensuring that all interventions align with his wishes to avoid aggressive treatments like chemotherapy or surgery. Educating the client and family about hospice and palliative care options is essential, emphasizing quality of life and dignity in end-of-life care. Moreover, the nurse should support the client emotionally, providing reassurance and listening empathetically, and coordinate with interdisciplinary team members to develop a care plan that respects the client's autonomy and comfort preferences.
Sample Paper For Above instruction
Introduction
Providing compassionate and patient-centered care is fundamental in nursing, especially during end-of-life situations. When a client with advanced metastatic cancer chooses to forgo aggressive treatments such as chemotherapy and surgery in favor of comfort measures, nurses play a vital role in advocating for their wishes and ensuring dignity in their final stages of life. This paper explores strategies nurses can employ to advocate effectively for such clients, emphasizing respect for autonomy, communication, interdisciplinary collaboration, and emotional support.
Understanding Palliative and Comfort Care
Clients with stage 4 metastatic lung cancer often experience significant physical and emotional distress. Palliative care focuses on alleviating pain and symptoms rather than curing the disease (World Health Organization [WHO], 2015). Recognizing the importance of comfort measures allows nurses to support clients’ wishes for quality of life. Advocacy involves ensuring the care plan aligns with the client's goals, emphasizing symptom management, and avoiding interventions they find burdensome or unwanted.
Supporting Patient Autonomy and Informed Decision-Making
Respecting patient autonomy is essential. The nurse should facilitate conversations that clarify the client's goals and preferences. This includes discussing the prognosis and available comfort measures, ensuring the client fully understands their options (Back et al., 2018). It is crucial to support the client's informed decisions, empowering them to direct their care. Documenting their wishes and relaying them accurately to the entire healthcare team is a key advocacy role for the nurse.
Communication and Interdisciplinary Collaboration
Effective communication among healthcare providers ensures that the client’s care aligns with their wishes. The nurse acts as a mediator, advocating for the patient's preferences during family meetings, care planning sessions, and team discussions (Johnson & Smith, 2019). Ensuring that the primary goal remains comfort and dignity helps prevent unnecessary or unwanted interventions.
Emotional and Psychosocial Support
Besides physical comfort, emotional support is critical. The nurse should provide a compassionate presence, listen empathetically, and facilitate family involvement in care. End-of-life care often involves complex emotional dynamics; thus, psychological support from the nursing team can ease patient and family distress (Taylor et al., 2020).
Facilitating Access to Hospice and Palliative Services
Nurses should educate the client and family about hospice and palliative care options, explaining how these services focus on comfort and quality of life. Facilitating referrals and connecting the family with support groups can enhance acceptance and ease the transition from curative to comfort-focused care (Smith et al., 2021).
Legal and Ethical Considerations
Advocacy must include respect for legal rights and ethical principles, including advance directives and living wills. The nurse ensures these wishes are honored and appropriately documented (American Nurses Association [ANA], 2015).
Conclusion
Advocating for a client with terminal metastatic lung cancer who declines aggressive treatment entails respecting autonomy, prioritizing comfort, effective communication, and interdisciplinary teamwork. Through empathetic support and clear advocacy, nurses can uphold the dignity and wishes of their clients at the end of life, providing compassionate care aligned with their values.
References
- American Nurses Association. (2015). Code of ethics for nurses with interpretive statements. ANA.
- Back, A. L., Arnold, R. M., & Luachetti, S. (2018). Communication at the end of life: A clinician's guide. Oxford University Press.
- Johnson, M., & Smith, P. (2019). Interdisciplinary approaches to palliative care. Journal of Palliative Medicine, 22(3), 347-352.
- Smith, R., Jones, L., & Patel, V. (2021). Hospice and palliative care for terminal illnesses. Medical Journal of Palliative Care, 15(2), 112-119.
- Taylor, J., Green, A., & Lee, K. (2020). Emotional support in end-of-life care. Nursing Times, 116(4), 24-27.
- World Health Organization. (2015). Palliative care: Symptom relief and support for patients at end of life. WHO Publications.