Palliative Nursing Care

 Nursing and palliative care share common roots, goals, and values. To advance palliative nursing practice, it's essential to discern the unique contribution of palliative nursing to the sector of palliative care. The goal of palliative care is to stop and relieve suffering and to support the simplest possible quality of life for patients and their families, no matter the stage of the disease or the necessity for other therapies. The alleviation of suffering through the diagnosis and treatment of human responses to health issues is an important function of nursing as defined by the American Nurses Association. For nurses, human response may be a complex phenomenon that encompasses the physical, social, emotional, and spiritual aspects of being. Through the art of being present and thus the science of evidence-based interventions, palliative nurses assess, diagnose, and intervene to support or modify these responses in patients with acute or chronic, potentially life-limiting illnesses and their families to realize positive patient outcomes that maximize quality of life and alleviate suffering. As the palliative nurse involves know the patient and family within the nurse-patient relationship, the values, beliefs, past experiences, and goals of all parties emerge and shape future care from symptom management, to advanced directives, treatment choices, and care at the time of death.