PATIENT WELL BEING AND PALLIATIVE CARE

Patient well being and palliative care

Deepa Govind

7023211

Field Studies II

RTH1135

Gino De Pinto

March 22, 2017

PATIENT WELL BEING AND PALLIATIVE CARE

Palliative care as defined by the Hospice Palliative Care Ontario is defined as a special

kind of healthcare for individuals and families living with life-limiting illness that is usually

at an advanced stage (HPCO, 2016). In addition with providing relief from pain and

symptoms associated with the disease, providers of palliative care also help patients

and their families deal with the detrimental effects the disease process may have on the

mental well being of the patient. This paper is an article summary for Early palliative

care for patients with metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer (Temel et al., 2010).

The experiment to support this paper was carried out between June 7, 2006 to July 15,

2009. The study recruited 151 individuals with newly diagnosed metastatic non-small-

cell lung cancer, in a non-blinded, randomized, controlled trial of early palliative care

integrated with standard oncologic care as compared to patients with standard

oncologic care only. Individuals were enrolled within eight weeks of diagnosis. The study

was conducted with proper guidelines and protocols in place. The study was approved

by the Dana Farber/Partners Cancer Care Institution review board. Informed written

consents were obtained from all the individuals/patients participating in the experiment

(Temel et al., 2010).

The study assessed the quality of life and mood of the patients at the beginning of the

assessment and at week twelve. This was done using the Functional Assessment of
PATIENT WELL BEING AND PALLIATIVE CARE

Cancer Therapy - Lung (FACT-L) scale and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale

(HADS) (Temel et al., 2010).

The results of the experiment suggest that despite similar treatment for the cancer in the

two groups, the patients assigned to the group that received early palliative care had

improved quality of life (supported by the FACT-L and HADS assessment tools) and in

turn the patients had a greater preference for resuscitation on their electronic records.

The patient group that received early palliative care also needed less aggressive end of

life treatment and overall, the median survival rate among patients was increased

(Temel et al., 2010). This study is one of the many that supports the idea of providing

palliative care to patients that are affected by disease processes that are long and

difficult to manage. Palliative care provides care keeping in mind the comfort and dignity

of a patient and their family(HPCO, 2016).

PATIENT WELL BEING AND PALLIATIVE CARE

References:

1. Hospice Palliative Care Ontario. 2016. What is palliative care? Hospice Palliative

Care Ontario. Retrieved on March 20, 2017, from: http://www.hpco.ca/who-we-

are/about-hospice-palliative-care/

2. Temel J.S. et al. 2010. Early Palliative Care for Patients with Metastatic Non-Small-

Cell Lung Cancer. The New England Journal of Medicine. 363:733-742.

DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1000678.