NP614 Test 5 - Sheet1 Flashcards
(300 cards)
Objective signs of dying and death
Elusive, depending on pt’s diagnosis
Question to help you think of pallative care differently
WOuld you be surprised if this pt died in the next 6 months to 1 yr?
Key concept of pallative care
Replace models of cure vs palliation with one that uses pallative strategies that are concurrent with disease-modifying treatments. Treatment should begin long before death is imminent
Goal of pallative care
Prevent and relieve suffering and to support the best possible quality of life for pts and their families, regardless of the stage of their disease or the need of other therapies.
First step of pallative care
Understand the pts preferences and help identify goals of care that may change as the disesase progresses
Elements of “Five Wishes” advanced directives
The person to make care decisions when I can’t. The kind of medical treatment I want or do not want. How comfortable I want to be. How I want people to treat me. What I want my loved ones to know.
Cachexia
A state of general malnutrition marked by weight loss, malnutrition, weakness, and emaciation. Usually marked by an equal loss of fat, muscle, and bone mineral content.
Causes of anorexia
Second most common symptom in cancer pts. Includes situational coping, unrelated illness, treatment side effects, anxiety, and depression. With advanced dementia is a marker of the traensition to end-stage disease.
Realistic goals of nutritional intake in pallative care
Focus on improving quality of life with preferred foods, giving them foods previously restricted, no glucose monitoring, restraining from use of cholester-lowering agents. Can use appetitie stimulants
Characteristics of anxiety
Insomnia, headache, SOA, weakenss, chest pain, palpitaitons, sensation of butterflies in stomach, urinary frequency, pallor, restlessness, tremor, and sweating
Difference between anxiety and fear
Fear has a definable quality or cause. Anxiety is a sense of deep unease
PCP consideration of high-risk populations regarding HIV
Act as a case finder and be thinking of the possibility of HIV when caring for pts with unusual symptoms or are high-risk
Important role of PCP regarding education of HIV
Education to teens, women, and infected individuals regarding primary and secondary prevention
Treatment of anxiety
Pharmacologic interventions and removal of specific problem if possible.
Characteristics of delirium
Sudden changes in mental status, a mental status that waxes and wanes, a reduced attention span, and hyperactivity or hypoactivity. Common in pts iwth advanced disease. Often worsens in late afternoon or at night. May signal impending death.
Diagnostics of delirium
Should only be taken if resutls are likely to change pt management
Opiod medications less likely to cause delirium
Fentanyl, hydromorphone, and oxycodone
Medications to avoid in pt with delirium
Benzodiazepines can result in paradoxical effects and worsen symptoms
Most important assessment criterion of dyspnea
The patient’s self-reporting
Management of the “death rattle”
Scopolamine patches - 1.5 mg transdermal, atropine 1% ophthalmic drops used SL
Ceiling doses of opiods
There are none
Goal of pallative sedation
Alleviate the suffering caused by the unrelieved symptoms
Types of preventable cancers
Those associated with lifestyle factors - smoking, obesity. Those associated with infectious agents - Hep B, HPD
Types of skin cancers
Nonmelanomatous (NMSCs) - such as basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and squamous cell (SCC) and malanomatous - such as malignant melanoma (MM)