Palliative Care Nursing Practice - case study

Palliative Care Nursing Practice - case study IntroductionThis assignment is aimed at demonstrating how the author understands the concepts of holistic therapeutic practice in palliative care and how the principles of palliative care are applied in the clinical setting. The author will demonstrate this in the format of a case study. There will be an introduction to palliative care with definitions of therapeutic and holistic care and some discussion around how the principles of palliative care are applied in the clinical setting. The author will then introduce the client chosen for the case study and identify an aspect of their care that is going to be explored and explain the reasoning behind this. Finally there will be an overall conclusion with recommendations made for future practice based on the authors' critique.Definitions of palliative careThe World Health Organisation (2002) stated that the goal of palliative care is to control patient's pain and other symptoms associated with the whole person, being their body, soul an d mind, whilst enabling patient's and their families to maintain a quality of life.English: Dunbar Hospital, Thurso Community Hospita...However there are many definitions from various authors about the principles and philosophy of palliative care but they all relate to the same basis and that is that the philosophy and principles of palliative care is to look after the patient as a whole and not just treat the illness with the main focus being that the patient has the best quality of life possible and is allowed to die with dignity (Kemp, 1995). Faull, Carter and Daniels (2005) and Watson, Lucas, Hoy and Back (2005) define that palliative care is not a substitute for other care but a means to compliment it, therefore ensuring the patient and family gets the optimum care and the best quality of life possible, whilst encompassing the whole person, spiritually and psychologically.Potter and...