Palliative Care Tutorial

Question 1

What is the role of palliative care?

Answer 1

Keep patients minds off their illness
Reduce and minimise the pain
Improve quality of life
Come to terms with death
Focus on care rather than cure
They have

Question 2

What are the key messages of this story?

Answer 2

Not, ‘you are going to die.’ but ‘you are going to die and ill help you, ill walk with you.’
Approx 70% die in acute hospitals - die in intensive care
Intensive care: $3000/day for a bed
Palliative care: $600-1600/day for a bed

Question 3

What are the common myths about palliative care?

Answer 3

That they are looking to fix the problem and cure the person.

Question 4

What are the needs of people at the end of their lives?

Answer 4

Company
Minimising pain
Support
Information
Care of family and loved ones

Question 5

What are the key messages of this program?

Answer 5

Cancer survivors, like war and other stressful events, needs treatment after the trauma.

Question 6

What are the experiences and needs of cancer survivors depicted in this program?

Answer 6

Support group than understands the challenges of a survivor.
No longer have trust in the body
Constant life of CAT scans and MRI scans

Does it take away their identity?
Does the survivor start identifying in themselves as being handicapped.
The survivor is irrevocably changed; this then meets the ultimate fear of the partner: lost their partner (and who they are) for ever.

They are looked upon as survivors; they then have the perspective that they are obliged to pay something or someone back

Question 7

What are the unique experiences and needs of YOUNG cancer survivors?

Answer 7

The change of personality and physical expression.
Your mental identity and conception of oneself.
Inhibition of sex life: going from a care-taker role to a sexually active role.

Experience has matured them beyond their peers.

Infertility; menopause.

Do they want to engage in ‘get-to-know’ conversations and identify as a cancer patient/survivor.

Work issues: medical retirement; workplace discrimination

Question 8

Post-traumatic growth

Answer 8

improrved interpersonal relationships
creating new life experiences
a greater appreciation for ife
a sense of spiritua;